London: The British government feared a furious Libyan reaction if the convicted Lockerbie bomber wasn't set free and expressed relief when they learned that he would be released on compassionate grounds, leaked US diplomatic cables show.
A cache of cables from the US Embassy in Tripoli describes the run-up to the decision to free Abdul Baset Ali Al Megrahi, a former Libyan agent whose freedom on August 20, 2009, sparked jubilation in Libya but roiled relations between London and Washington.
Critics of the decision on both sides of the Atlantic have alleged that British officials were motivated by commercial interests — including those of energy company BP Plc — when they moved to free Al Megrahi, the only man convicted in the 1988 attack on Pan Am Flight 103.
While officials here have always stressed that the 58-year-old Al Megrahi was released because he suffers from terminal prostate cancer, the cables show the Brits were keenly aware that they faced a hugely damaging backlash if they didn't do as the Libyans wanted. The UK was caught "between a rock and a hard place," an October 24, 2008 US cable warned.
"The Libyans have told HMG [Her Majesty's Government] flat out that there will be ‘enormous repercussions' for the UK-Libya bilateral relationship if Al Megrahi's early release is not handled properly."
Britain's ambassador to Tripoli, Vincent Fean, said a few months later that a refusal to release the convicted terrorist would have meant disaster for British interests in Libya.
"They could have cut us off at the knees, just like the Swiss," the cable quotes Fean as saying. Fean seemed to be referring to the Swiss detention of Muammar Gaddafi's son and daughter-in-law in July 2008 for assaults on their servants in Geneva — arrests that sparked a spectacular collapse of relations between the two countries.
Retaliation
Tripoli suspended visas for Swiss citizens, withdrew funds from Swiss banks, stopped oil shipments, reduced flights to Switzerland, and imprisoned two Swiss businessmen in retaliation — forcing Switzerland into an embarrassing apology.
British officials have long acknowledged that commercial interests — as well the desire to deepen anti-terrorism cooperation — played a role in the UK-Libyan prisoner transfer agreement which first raised the prospect of Al Megrahi's release.
