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SFO to appeal against BAE court verdict

22/04/2008

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced that it will appeal against the recent high court verdict that rules it "acted unlawfully" by halting the investigation into arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia.

The SFO investigation, dropped in 2006, arose out of BAE's £43 billion al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia in 1985.

On April 10th this year high court judges condemned the "abject surrender" of the government to pressure from Saudi Arabia in blocking the investigation.

New SFO director Richard Alderman said that he would seek leave to appeal at a hearing on Thursday.

"The Judgment of the Divisional Court raises principles of general public importance affecting, among other things, the independence of prosecutors and the role of the court in reviewing a prosecutor's evaluation of the public interest in a case like this," Mr Alderman said.

"The Court itself has commented that the issues raised in this case are important points of public interest. I will therefore be seeking permission to appeal to the House of Lords to obtain a definitive ruling".

Earlier this month, Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg wrote to prime minister Gordon Brown urging him to ask the SFO to reopen the probe into the al-Yamamah deal, the biggest arms contract in British history.

In December 2006, the SFO decided to stop its investigation into allegations that BAE paid millions of pounds to senior Saudi officials as part of the contract, citing national security concerns.