By Salah Sarrar and Luke Baker
TRIPOLI/LONDON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Britain dismissed suggestions of a link between the Lockerbie bomber's release and energy deals with Libya on Saturday, after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi embraced the man and thanked Britain.
'The idea that the British government, the Libyan government, would sit down and somehow barter over the freedom or the life of this Libyan prisoner and make it all part of some business deal ... it's not only wrong, it's completely implausible and actually quite offensive,' British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said.
London and Washington have roundly condemned the 'hero's welcome' given to the dying Abdel Basset al-Megrahi on his return home after being freed from a life sentence in a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds.
Gaddafi met Megrahi on Friday, giving him a warm embrace and getting a kiss in return, expressed gratitude to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Queen Elizabeth and said their encouragement of Scotland to free him would improve ties.
'This step is in the interest of relations between the two countries ... and of the personal friendship between me and them and will be positively reflected for sure in all areas of cooperation between the two countries,' he told Libyan TV.
His son Saif al-Islam went further, saying that whenever he had met British officials to discuss business, the issue of Megrahi's release had been a condition of any deal being struck.
Mandelson said he had met Gaddafi's son twice in the past year and the issue of the Lockerbie bomber had been raised both times, but his release was not tied to business deals.
'It's not only completely wrong to make any such suggestion or insinuation, it's also quite offensive,' he told reporters.
In Washington, FBI director Robert Mueller released an angry letter he sent to the Scottish minister, Kenny MacAskill, who ordered the release.
Mueller called the decision inexplicable and detrimental to justice. 'Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law. Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world,' Mueller wrote in the letter posted on the FBI's website.
Megrahi, 57, denies he was once a Libyan intelligence agent and was responsible for the bombing, in which a Pan Am jet carrying 259 passengers -- most of them American -- was blown up over Lockerbie in Scotland in December 1988, killing all those on board and 11 people on the ground.
After years of wrangling and sanctions, Libya handed him over for trial and he was sentenced by a special Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands in 2001. He was freed on Thursday because of his terminal prostate cancer.
BUSINESS LINK?
'In all British interests regarding Libya, I always put you on the table,' Saif al-Islam's newspaper quoted him as telling Megrahi on his return to Libya.
'All the visits of the ex-Prime Minister Blair and the big secret and public work that all the parties entered into was carried out in order to release you. The exploitation of British-Libyan political and trade interests was always done with the aim of releasing Abdel Basset al-Megrahi.'
European governments including Britain's are lobbying hard for business in Libya as it emerges from years of sanctions. Oil companies such as BP and Shell are among several British firms hoping to make big profits in the desert country.
Britain's Foreign Office flatly denied any link.
'There is no deal -- all decisions relating to Megrahi's case have been exclusively for Scottish ministers, the Crown Office in Scotland and the Scottish judicial authorities,' a spokesman said.
'No deal has been made between the UK government and Libya in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests.'
More than 1,000 Libyans gathered at an airport in Tripoli on Thursday to welcome Megrahi home, cheering and waving national flags, despite the fact relatives of the Americans victims said they had received assurances there would be no hero's welcome.
WAITING TO DIE
Megrahi said in an interview with Britain's Times newspaper published on Saturday he would present new evidence before he died exonerating him of the bombing.
He dismissed the international furore over his release, saying U.S. President Barack Obama should know he would not be doing anything apart from going to hospital and waiting to die. Doctors say he may have less than three months to live.
'My message to the British and Scottish communities is that I will put out the evidence (to exonerate me) and ask them to be the jury,' Megrahi, sentenced in 2001, said without elaborating.
'(Obama) knows I'm a very ill person,' said Megrahi. 'The only place I have to go is the hospital for medical treatment.'
Gaddafi likened the shock of the Lockerbie relatives at Megrahi's release to that felt by Libyans in 2007 when Bulgarian medics, condemned to death for infecting Libyan children with HIV, were sent back to Bulgaria to serve life terms there, only to be immediately released.
Libya handed the nurses over to Bulgaria under heavy pressure from the West, advancing the long-isolated north African country's efforts to emerge from diplomatic isolation.
'Is it that we don't have feelings and they have?' Gaddafi was quoted by the Libyan news agency JANA as saying.
'The world was shocked and surprised that the condemned team were released before they descended from their plane at the airport in Bulgaria,' he said. 'They received them as heroes.'
'Now that Abdel Basset al-Megrahi has been released from prison, illogical voices have been heard saying this is against the feelings of Lockerbie victims' families.'
For more on Megrahi's release click on
(Writing by Tom Pfeiffer in Rabat; editing by Andrew Roche) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/) Keywords: LOCKERBIE/ (maghreb.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com; tel: +212 5 3772 6518; fax: +212 5 3772 2499) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
TRIPOLI/LONDON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Britain dismissed suggestions of a link between the Lockerbie bomber's release and energy deals with Libya on Saturday, after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi embraced the man and thanked Britain.
'The idea that the British government, the Libyan government, would sit down and somehow barter over the freedom or the life of this Libyan prisoner and make it all part of some business deal ... it's not only wrong, it's completely implausible and actually quite offensive,' British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said.
London and Washington have roundly condemned the 'hero's welcome' given to the dying Abdel Basset al-Megrahi on his return home after being freed from a life sentence in a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds.
Gaddafi met Megrahi on Friday, giving him a warm embrace and getting a kiss in return, expressed gratitude to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Queen Elizabeth and said their encouragement of Scotland to free him would improve ties.
'This step is in the interest of relations between the two countries ... and of the personal friendship between me and them and will be positively reflected for sure in all areas of cooperation between the two countries,' he told Libyan TV.
His son Saif al-Islam went further, saying that whenever he had met British officials to discuss business, the issue of Megrahi's release had been a condition of any deal being struck.
Mandelson said he had met Gaddafi's son twice in the past year and the issue of the Lockerbie bomber had been raised both times, but his release was not tied to business deals.
'It's not only completely wrong to make any such suggestion or insinuation, it's also quite offensive,' he told reporters.
In Washington, FBI director Robert Mueller released an angry letter he sent to the Scottish minister, Kenny MacAskill, who ordered the release.
Mueller called the decision inexplicable and detrimental to justice. 'Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law. Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world,' Mueller wrote in the letter posted on the FBI's website.
Megrahi, 57, denies he was once a Libyan intelligence agent and was responsible for the bombing, in which a Pan Am jet carrying 259 passengers -- most of them American -- was blown up over Lockerbie in Scotland in December 1988, killing all those on board and 11 people on the ground.
After years of wrangling and sanctions, Libya handed him over for trial and he was sentenced by a special Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands in 2001. He was freed on Thursday because of his terminal prostate cancer.
BUSINESS LINK?
'In all British interests regarding Libya, I always put you on the table,' Saif al-Islam's newspaper quoted him as telling Megrahi on his return to Libya.
'All the visits of the ex-Prime Minister Blair and the big secret and public work that all the parties entered into was carried out in order to release you. The exploitation of British-Libyan political and trade interests was always done with the aim of releasing Abdel Basset al-Megrahi.'
European governments including Britain's are lobbying hard for business in Libya as it emerges from years of sanctions. Oil companies such as BP and Shell are among several British firms hoping to make big profits in the desert country.
Britain's Foreign Office flatly denied any link.
'There is no deal -- all decisions relating to Megrahi's case have been exclusively for Scottish ministers, the Crown Office in Scotland and the Scottish judicial authorities,' a spokesman said.
'No deal has been made between the UK government and Libya in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests.'
More than 1,000 Libyans gathered at an airport in Tripoli on Thursday to welcome Megrahi home, cheering and waving national flags, despite the fact relatives of the Americans victims said they had received assurances there would be no hero's welcome.
WAITING TO DIE
Megrahi said in an interview with Britain's Times newspaper published on Saturday he would present new evidence before he died exonerating him of the bombing.
He dismissed the international furore over his release, saying U.S. President Barack Obama should know he would not be doing anything apart from going to hospital and waiting to die. Doctors say he may have less than three months to live.
'My message to the British and Scottish communities is that I will put out the evidence (to exonerate me) and ask them to be the jury,' Megrahi, sentenced in 2001, said without elaborating.
'(Obama) knows I'm a very ill person,' said Megrahi. 'The only place I have to go is the hospital for medical treatment.'
Gaddafi likened the shock of the Lockerbie relatives at Megrahi's release to that felt by Libyans in 2007 when Bulgarian medics, condemned to death for infecting Libyan children with HIV, were sent back to Bulgaria to serve life terms there, only to be immediately released.
Libya handed the nurses over to Bulgaria under heavy pressure from the West, advancing the long-isolated north African country's efforts to emerge from diplomatic isolation.
'Is it that we don't have feelings and they have?' Gaddafi was quoted by the Libyan news agency JANA as saying.
'The world was shocked and surprised that the condemned team were released before they descended from their plane at the airport in Bulgaria,' he said. 'They received them as heroes.'
'Now that Abdel Basset al-Megrahi has been released from prison, illogical voices have been heard saying this is against the feelings of Lockerbie victims' families.'
For more on Megrahi's release click on
(Writing by Tom Pfeiffer in Rabat; editing by Andrew Roche) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/) Keywords: LOCKERBIE/ (maghreb.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com; tel: +212 5 3772 6518; fax: +212 5 3772 2499) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.