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Saif
Al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya
leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, told the French newspaper Le Monde
that the six health workers, held in Libya for
nearly a decade for allegedly having infected hundreds of children with HIV,
have been released in exchange for the transfer to Libya of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.
In January 2001, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed
al-Megrahi was convicted in a special court located
in the Netherlands
under Scottish rules for the murder of 270 people who died in the 1988
Lockerbie bombing. Megrahi is serving a life
sentence in a Scottish prison.
"We will soon have an extradition agreement with the UK. Our
diplomats have discussed the matter with their British counterparts last
month," Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi said.
Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi sought the interview, held on
Tuesday in a luxurious hotel located in the French city of Nice, to
"clarify a few issues." He told the French journalists that he
never believed that the six Health workers wereguilty.
"Unfortunately, they were mere scapegoats," he stated calmly.
"This time around, we got a good deal. It is a complicated story, a huge
mess. There are lots of players. And it was necessary to please all of
them."
According to General Kirtcho Kirov,
the head of Bulgarian secret services, Intelligences Agencies of about 20
countries have been involved in the deal. Kirov
explicitly mentioned the UK, Italy, Israel, the
Palestinian Authorities, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco as well
as Bulgaria and Libya.
The deal was initiated by the former Head of MI-6 Global Operations, Marc
Allan, who arranged a series of meetings between Bulgarian and Libyan secret
services agents.
Kirov met Moussa Koussa on five occasions
in Tripoli,
Roma, Paris and London. Koussa was the head of the Libyan secret services until
2004, when he was succeeded by Abdallah Sanoussi, the brother-in-law of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Kirov and Sanoussi pursued the
negotiations over the last three years.
Last February, Saif Al-Islam, the sword of Islam,
and Kirov held a secret nightly meeting in Vienna. The
two men agreed on exchanging the six medics sentenced to death in Libya for Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi.
"I knew that these issues would be solved by late July-early
August," Kirov
said. "Both affairs are indirectly linked to the geopolitical interests
of the U.S., the
UK and Libya."
Kirov also
told the Bulgarian newspaper 24-Tchassa that he was aware that the deal would
also involve large oil groups as well as arms manufacturers. Following
Blair’s visit to Tripoli last
May, British Petroleum signed a US$900 million contract with Libya.
The agreement to swap the medics for Megrahi was
finalized during Blair visit to Tripoli
earlier this year. On June 28, less than a month after one of his last
foreign travels as Prime Minister, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review
Commission decided to grant Megrahi a second appeal
and to refer his case to the High Court.
The revelation by Saif Al-Islam and the timing of
the events are devastating for Blair and the credibility of the Crown’s
independence. Tony Blair's official spokesman has always denied the
allegations that Megrahi would be returned to Libya.
Asked about these allegations, which were reported by the BBC and Sky News,
at the G8 summit, Mr Blair's spokesman told AFP:
"It's wrong."
The statement from the prime minister's office was backed by the Foreign
Office spokesman. "It's an MoU
that is going to lead to the start of discussions on the whole gamut of legal
issues, judicial issues," he told AFP.
“Given that, it is totally wrong to suggest that we have reached any
agreement with the Libyan government in this case. The memorandum of
understanding agreed with the Libyan government does not cover this case,” he
added.
"Incredibly it seems that we are being asked to believe that this
concerns other Libyan nationals, but not Megrahi,"
said Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed
in the bombing.
The content of the MoU, which was signed on May 29
during Blair visit to Tripoli, is
not known. Nevertheless, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond
told the Scottish Parliament that the document "deals with judicial
cooperation on matters of law, extradition, and on the issue of prisoner
transfer".
"This government is determined that decisions on any individual case
will continue to be made following the due process of Scots law," Salmond said.
"Tony Blair has quite simply ridden roughshod over devolution and
treated with contempt Scotland's
distinct and independent legal system," said Scottish Tory leader
Annabel Goldie.
It has long been suspected that the US and
the UK
governments would do whatever necessary to avoid a re-trial of the Lockerbie
bombing. If indeed Megrahi is returned to Libya, it
is almost certain that the real culprits of the worst act of terror in the UK will
never be identified, let alone convicted. Neither will we ever know why both
governments have conspired to cover up the identities of these culprits.
"Your government and ours know exactly what happened. But they're never
going to tell," told a member of the President's Commission on Aviation
Security and Terrorism (PCAST) to British PA103 relatives at the U.S. embassy
in London on Feb. 12, 1990.
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