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The Attorney General is to be asked to rule on whether the Serious Fraud Office should prosecute arms giant BAE Systems for alleged corruption.
The SFO said today it is to ask Baroness Scotland to assent to a prosecution of claims that BAE paid bribes while attempting to sell jet fighters, warships and radar technology to the Czech Republic, Romania, Tanzania and South Africa.
Former premier Tony Blair halted a previous SFO investigation into BAE which alleged that £2billion of bribes had been paid as part of a £43 billion fighter plane contract with Saudi Arabia. The Campaign Against Arms Trade said it would be "scandalous" if Lady Scotland did not sanction the prosecution. The SFO earlier failed to agree a plea bargain deal with BAE. The company said today it was prepared to see the SFO "in court".
Reader views (6)
She is not a fit and proper person to make such a decision. She is no longer fit to hold a legal position because of her breaking the law she introduced and she is not a viable representative of the Government in UK with her position in the Lords.
Any decision she makes is compromised before she makes it as her ability to judge right from wrong is fundamentally flawed !
- James, City of London, 02/10/2009 10:08
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This "Lady" has less credibility than a dead rattlesnake.
The phrase "technical error" springs to mind.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 02/10/2009 09:13
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Surely it was just a "technical error" on the part of BAE???
- Bigmaddog, Barking, 01/10/2009 16:40
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How can anything she does not be affected by the on-going controversy of her own legal problems. She can be damned if she does assent, and damned if she doesn't - either for making a point about how she is still in charge, or being too scared of political flack if she doesn't.
The woman should have stood down long before now.
- Rogan, Irving, 01/10/2009 16:24
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Bribery? Surely you mean commission, don´t you? If you want to do business with these peolple, then you do it their way. If you don´t, there are others who will. For example, both France and Sweden have thriving aircraft industries who would be only too happy to sell their aircraft to Saudi Arabia and others. The bottom line is, do you want to see jobs created for Brits, or do you want to see those jobs go to your competitors? I think somebody should tell the SFO to get into the real world.
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands, 01/10/2009 16:14
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Yes Baroness Scotland - we wouldn't anyone breaking the Law, would we?
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 01/10/2009 15:49
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