Lockerbie affair linked to UK trade deals: Kadhafi's son

The release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi was linked to trade deals with Britain, Seif al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, said in a interview, reported AFP.

Megrahi, who has always maintained his innocence, said separately in an interview with The Times he would produce evidence showing that he suffered a miscarriage of justice.

"In all commercial contracts, for oil and gas with Britain, (Megrahi) was always on the negotiating table," said Islam, interviewed late Thursday as he accompanied Megrahi on the flight back from Scotland to Libya.

"All British interests were linked to the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi," Islam said in an interview broadcast by Libyan TV channel Al Mutawassit on Friday.

Megrahi is the only person convicted for the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people in the air and on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Sentenced to life in prison in 2001, Scottish authorities released Megrahi Thursday on compassionate grounds as doctors treating the 57-year-old for prostate cancer said he had no more than three months to live.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Downing Street office firmly denied that Megrahi's release was linked to Britain's interest in Libya's oil and gas reserves.

"There is no deal," a spokesman told AFP.

"The position remains the same as we have been making clear: this has always been a matter for the Scottish executive and ministers," he added.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office also rejected the allegations.

"No deal has been made between the UK government and Libya in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests in the country," a spokesman said.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Friday angrily refuted suggestions that the British government wanted Megrahi freed so that commercial relations with oil-rich Libya could be improved.

"I really reject that entirely," he said. "That is a slur both on myself and the government."

Speculation that there had been some form of agreement was fuelled by the disclosure that Britain's Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson met Seif al-Islam during his recent holiday on the Greek island of Corfu.

Islam said Megrahi's case was raised each time former prime minister Tony Blair visited Libya.

Tony Blair last visited Libya as prime minister in May 2007, when British energy giant BP signed a 900 million dollar exploration deal.

Washington has strongly objected to Megrahi's release.

US President Barack Obama called the red-carpet reception Megrahi received in Tripoli, where hundreds of flag-waving well-wishers cheered his arrival, "highly objectionable" and said Libya should keep him under house arrest.

Islam called Megrahi's release a "victory that we offer to all Libyans."

Megrahi said: "I never imagined that I would one day be able to return to Libya," in a brief interview with Al Mutawassit recorded during his flight to Tripoli.

"I have waited a long time for this moment. One can only thank God," he said.

In an interview with the The Times conducted at his family home in Tripoli, Megrahi denied suggestions he had pressured by Scottish or British authorities into dropping an appeal against his conviction, afraid that it would expose a miscarriage of justice.

"If there is justice in the UK I would be acquitted or the verdict would be quashed because it was unsafe. There was a miscarriage of justice," Megrahi was quoted as saying.

The Times said Megrahi promised that before he died, he would present new evidence through his Scottish lawyers that would exonerate him.

"My message to the British and Scottish communities is that I will put out the evidence and ask them to be the jury," he said, refusing to elaborate.