Straw: Megrahi included in PTA because of trade concerns 

One question that arises from the publication the Lockerbie documents is why Jack Straw suddenly decided against excluding al-Megrahi from the PTA? Straw justified his change of heart on the grounds of “overwhelming national interests”, though trade and commercial interests were not a contributing factor in that calculation, a point he reiterated last weekend. But, in an interview with the Telegraph today, Straw contradicts himself:

‘”Yes, it (trade deals with Libya) was a very big part of that (including al-Megrahi in the PTA). I’m unapologetic about that. Libya was a rogue state. We wanted to bring it back into the fold and trade is an essential part of it – and subsequently there was the BP deal.”‘

This revelation lends credence to Saif al-Islam’s insistence that Megrahi’s release or transfer was always a pre-condition of UK Libyan agreements, and undermines Straw’s, David Miliband’s, Lord Mandelson’s and Gordon Brown’s righteous indignation about being accused of ‘double dealing’.  Once again, there are more questions to answer about this whole case.