Evidence grows of Blair's links with Gaddafi

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Independent on Sunday. It reads in part:]

Tony Blair's shadowy links with Muammar Gaddafi were thrust into the spotlight again last night after it emerged that he met the former Libyan dictator twice for secret talks in the run-up to the release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

A collection of documents found in Tripoli have revealed that Mr Blair was flown to Libya twice on one of Colonel Gaddafi's private jets after he left office in the UK, according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph. In the letters and emails, Mr Blair's private office repeatedly refers to Gaddafi as "The Leader".

The meetings, in 2008 and 2009, came at a time when Libya was threatening to cut all business links with the UK if Abdelbaset al-Megrahi stayed in a British jail.

The correspondence, between Mr Blair's office, the British ambassador in Tripoli and the Libyan ambassador in London, raise possible conflicts of interest regarding his roles as Middle East peace envoy, philanthropist and consultant. 

The former prime minister, who brought a US billionaire to one of the meetings, makes no reference to the trips on any of his websites. 

Mr Blair's office last night denied that the visits were business-related. A spokesman confirmed that Megrahi's situation was raised at the meetings, but insisted that Mr Blair always told the Libyans that the prisoner's status was a matter for the Scottish Executive. Megrahi, who has cancer, was eventually released on health grounds in August 2009 after doctors judged that he had only three months to live. 

But Pam Dix, whose brother died in the Lockerbie bombing, said yesterday: "These meetings ... are disturbing, and details of what was discussed should now be made public. I am astonished Tony Blair continued to have meetings like this out of office." 

The meetings took place at a time of intense negotiations with Colonel Gaddafi's regime over Megrahi's release (...)

A spokesman for Tony Blair said last night: "Tony Blair has never had any role, either formal or informal, paid or unpaid, with the Libyan Investment Authority or the Government of Libya and he has no commercial relationship with any Libyan company or entity.

"The subject of the conversations during Mr Blair's occasional visits was primarily Africa, as Libya was for a time head of the African Union; but also the Middle East and how Libya should reform and open up. At the time, governments around the world were engaging with Libya."

[It appears that the story on The Independent website is in fact a re-hash of a longer report that appeared on the website of The Telegraph on Saturday evening.  The original report can be read here. It contains the following paragraph:]

Mr Blair has always denied involvement in Megrahi's release – saying it was a decision taken by the Scottish Executive alone. Last night a spokesman admitted Megrahi's release was raised by Gaddafi.

[The report in The Scotsman of Monday, 19 September contains the following:]

Yesterday justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, who made the decision to release Megrahi, insisted that the meetings played no part in his decision.

He said: "Al-Megrahi is dying of terminal prostate cancer, and was released on compassionate grounds. These reports underline the extent of Labour's hypocrisy over al-Megrahi. It was Tony Blair who rode roughshod over Scotland by secretly negotiating a prisoner transfer agreement with Col Gaddafi in the first place, for reasons of trade and politics.

"As all the documentation and inquiries demonstrate, only the SNP government played with a straight bat on this matter."

[A similar but longer report in Monday's edition of The Herald can be read here.]