Ex-UK PM Blair could face parliamentary probe over secret meetings with Gaddafi
According to The Sunday Telegraph, senior British lawmakers are likely to ask Blair to reveal all details of his private meetings with Gaddafi since he left Downing Street in 2007.
The paper has already revealed that Blair had at least six meetings with Gaddafi after quitting as prime minister and that five of those meetings took place in a 14 month period prior to the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in 2010.
On at least two occasions, Blair and his sizeable entourage flew to Tripoli on a private jet paid for by the Gaddafi regime at a cost of about 150,000 pounds.
One meeting said to have taken place in January 2009 has been linked to a multi-billion dollar deal between the Libyans and a Russian company being put together by JP Morgan, the US bank which pays Blair about two million pounds a year as a senior adviser.
Tory chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Richard Ottaway has said lawmakers will decide in the coming week whether they should launch an investigation into Blair's dealings in Libya.
It is understood that the committee intends to write to Blair requesting details of his numerous meetings.
In a separate development, the Tory chairman of the Commons all party committee on Libya, Daniel Kawczynski, has written to Prime Minister David Cameron requesting permission to conduct a formal investigation into Blair's relationship with Gaddafi.
Kawczynski, who has written a biography of Gaddafi, said: "We need to get to the bottom of whether he (Blair) was profiting in any way or involved in lucrative business associations."
Blair has so far refused to reveal details of his trips. But he vehemently denies any suggestions he played a part in the release of al-Megrahi and denies any knowledge of the deal JP Morgan was trying to pull off with the Libyan Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund in which Saif Gaddafi, one of the dictator's sons, had a major influence.
The deal subsequently fell through. (ANI -Posted on / )
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