Britain asked to explain halt to Saudi arms probe

Posted on: Jan. 4th, 2007 || Source: middle-east-online.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

Britain asked to explain halt to Saudi arms probe

Britain's government is facing international pressure over its decision to halt its probe into a controversial arms deal between British defence group BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia during the 1980s.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a grouping of 30 industrialised nations, confirmed Thursday that it had written to the British government asking it to explain why it dropped the investigation last month.

"The letter was sent before Christmas asking for further information about the BAE affair," OECD head of media Nicholas Bray said.

Britain's Attorney General Peter Goldsmith denied in December that the government had contravened an OECD convention, to which Britain is a party, on combating bribery in international business transactions.

Goldsmith announced on December 14 that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) - a government department - had halted its investigation into claims that BAE Systems had established a slush fund for some Saudi royal family members.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has defended the decision, saying years of "ill feeling" between Britain and "a key partner and ally" would have developed if the investigation had been allowed to proceed.

The fund allegedly provided perks including luxury cars to keep the Saudis on board at BAE. It was also allegedly linked to an estimated 50-billion-pound deal from the 1980s involving the supply and support of Tornado and Hawk jets as well as the construction of an airbase.

BAE earlier this year agreed to a 10 billion-pound (14.8-billion-euro, 19.8-billion-dollar) deal with Saudi Arabia for 72 Eurofighter jets, and the deal was reportedly under threat because of the SFO investigation.

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