Did BP Push to Have Lockerbie Bomber Released?

BP Oil Deal with Lybia
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, foreground, and First Minister Alex Salmond, seen, during the Lockerbie debate at the Scottish Parliament, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Wednesday Sept. 2, 2009.   (AP)

With BP about to begin drilling for oil in Libya's Gulf of Sidra, Sen. Frank Lautenberg has urged the British government to investigate whether BP a hand in securing the release of the Lockerbie bomber in order to help close the oil deal. Kirsten Gillibrand, Charles Schumer, and Bob Menendez joined Lautenberg last week in pushing the UK government to act; Lautenberg also raised the issue with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 2 weeks after Abdel Baset al-Megrahi's 2009 release, reports the Deccan Herald.

Citing recently released reports and letters, Lautenberg says BP told the British government in 2007 it was concerned "that a delay in concluding a prisoner transfer agreement with the Libyan government might hurt" the oil deal. Jack Straw, the UK's former secretary of state for justice, initially intended to exclude al-Megrahi from the prisoner transfer but changed his position, the senator added. And it gets worse—click here to find out why.
(More British Petroleum stories.)

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