Lockerbie panel invites ex-minister to testify

WASHINGTON - Former British Justice Secretary Jack Straw has been invited to testify next week at a United States congressional hearing on the release of the Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing, a Senate source said yesterday.

Two Scottish officials have declined to appear before the Senate foreign relations committee, which is examining Scotland's decision last year to free Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted of bombing a US airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The committee has not heard if Straw, who has also served as Foreign Secretary, will testify after being invited to appear at a July 29 public hearing, according to the Senate source, who asked not to be identified.

Megrahi was freed by Scottish authorities last year, triggering an international outcry that has complicated US-British relations already frayed by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Senate committee is looking into whether British energy giant BP influenced the bomber's release. The committee has invited testimony from two BP witnesses, chief executive Tony Hayward and adviser Mark Allen. BP has not said whether they will attend.

Straw said last year that trade with Libya played a "very big part" in Britain's decision to include Megrahi in a prisoner transfer deal and noted that a BP oil contract with Libya followed that agreement.

But Scottish authorities did not release him under the prisoner transfer agreement, but on compassionate grounds because he had what was described as terminal prostate cancer.

Scotland has its own legal powers within the British political system. The Scottish Government has denied it had any contact with BP before its decision to free Megrahi.

BP confirmed recently it encouraged Britain to complete the prisoner transfer deal in 2007 because it feared a slow resolution would affect the offshore drilling deal it wanted with Libya. But it denied lobbying Scottish authorities to free Megrahi.

- Reuters