Blair asked to give evidence to Gaddafi compensation inquiry
Former PM ‘has questions to answer’, say lawyers for victims of IRA attacks in which Semtex supplied by Libyan regime was used
Tony Blair shakes hands with Colonel Gaddafi following talks with the former Libya leader in Sirte in May 2007. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
The former prime minister Tony Blair has been asked to give evidence to a parliamentary committee looking into the failure to include UK victims of IRA violence in a compensation deal with the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Lawyers for victims of attacks in which semtex explosives supplied by Gaddafi were used said that Blair had “questions to answer” about why they were locked out of a 2008 deal in which Libya paid about £1bn in compensation to US victims of terrorism.
The deal provided Gaddafi’s regime with immunity from terrorism-related lawsuits, effectively invalidating the claims of British victims who were suing Libya in the US courts.
The Commons Northern Ireland committee, which is conducting an inquiry into the compensation issue, has been handed a copy of an email sent to Blair’s office by the then ambassador to Tripoli, Sir Vincent Fean, in 2008, a few days before Blair met Gaddafi in Libya.
The victims’ lawyer, Jason McCue, told the committee last month that the message made it “very clear that Tony Blair is working with President [George] Bush and Gaddafi to bring out what is known as the Libya claims settlement agreement, which deprived all the British citizens of compensation”.
In a letter to Blair, the committee chairman, Laurence Robertson, said: “There is a real sense amongst the victims that an opportunity to include them in the agreement reached between the US and Libya was missed in 2008. The committee is keen to shed some light on this and in so doing maybe provide some kind of closure for the victims.
“As you are no doubt aware, there has been a lot of concern voiced as to the nature of any involvement you may have had in negotiations between Libya and the US in the run-up to the signing of the US-Libya claims settlement agreement, which precluded the provision of compensation for the UK victims.”
Robertson asked Blair to submit written evidence to the inquiry by 23 October, and said he could later be called to appear before the cross-party committee to answer questions in person. Fean is due to give oral evidence to the inquiry on 14 October.
McCue said the call for Blair to give evidence was a “great step forward”, and could help clear up the question of whether the victims’ rights had been sacrificed for business deals.
“The United States, as well as Germany and France, all managed to secure their business interests without relinquishing responsibility and respect for their own citizen victims,” said McCue.
“Government departments ever since have been unable to explain why it is that the UK’s victims of the IRA have been prevented from gaining compensation, as other countries have, from Libya.
“The lives of the UK victims and their families seem to have been sacrificed for the benefit of half a billion pounds’ worth of celebrated business deals that never fully transpired. Blair’s answers may be the key to revealing finally how this failure of duty of care transpired during his government, and successive British governments.”
Gaddafi was killed in 2011.
The former prime minister Tony Blair has been asked to give evidence to a parliamentary committee looking into the failure to include UK victims of IRA violence in a compensation deal with the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Lawyers for victims of attacks in which semtex explosives supplied by Gaddafi were used said that Blair had “questions to answer” about why they were locked out of a 2008 deal in which Libya paid about £1bn in compensation to US victims of terrorism.
The deal provided Gaddafi’s regime with immunity from terrorism-related lawsuits, effectively invalidating the claims of British victims who were suing Libya in the US courts.
The Commons Northern Ireland committee, which is conducting an inquiry into the compensation issue, has been handed a copy of an email sent to Blair’s office by the then ambassador to Tripoli, Sir Vincent Fean, in 2008, a few days before Blair met Gaddafi in Libya.
The victims’ lawyer, Jason McCue, told the committee last month that the message made it “very clear that Tony Blair is working with President [George] Bush and Gaddafi to bring out what is known as the Libya claims settlement agreement, which deprived all the British citizens of compensation”.
In a letter to Blair, the committee chairman, Laurence Robertson, said: “There is a real sense amongst the victims that an opportunity to include them in the agreement reached between the US and Libya was missed in 2008. The committee is keen to shed some light on this and in so doing maybe provide some kind of closure for the victims.
“As you are no doubt aware, there has been a lot of concern voiced as to the nature of any involvement you may have had in negotiations between Libya and the US in the run-up to the signing of the US-Libya claims settlement agreement, which precluded the provision of compensation for the UK victims.”
Robertson asked Blair to submit written evidence to the inquiry by 23 October, and said he could later be called to appear before the cross-party committee to answer questions in person. Fean is due to give oral evidence to the inquiry on 14 October.
McCue said the call for Blair to give evidence was a “great step forward”, and could help clear up the question of whether the victims’ rights had been sacrificed for business deals.
“The United States, as well as Germany and France, all managed to secure their business interests without relinquishing responsibility and respect for their own citizen victims,” said McCue.
“Government departments ever since have been unable to explain why it is that the UK’s victims of the IRA have been prevented from gaining compensation, as other countries have, from Libya.
“The lives of the UK victims and their families seem to have been sacrificed for the benefit of half a billion pounds’ worth of celebrated business deals that never fully transpired. Blair’s answers may be the key to revealing finally how this failure of duty of care transpired during his government, and successive British governments.”
Gaddafi was killed in 2011.
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