U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei called today on the U.S. government to investigate whether British oil giant BP played a role in the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi from jail last year. Schumer, D-NY, said BP could be prosecuted under a U.S. law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, if it is found...
View full sizeMartha Alderman Boyer (left), of Liverpool, who lost her younger sister Paula in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and Helen Engelhardt, of Brooklyn, who lost her husband, Tony Hawkins, listen as U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer calls for a federal investigation into British oil company BP's involvement in the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi. The announcement was made at Syracuse University's Wall of Remembrance.U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei called today on the U.S. government to investigate whether British oil giant BP played a role in the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi from jail last year.
Schumer, D-NY, said BP could be prosecuted under a U.S. law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, if it is found to have persuaded the British government to release al-Megrahi to seal a lucrative oil deal with Libya.
“The evidence is circumstantial, but it is strong,” he said. “It’s time for a criminal investigation.”
Schumer and Maffei, D-DeWitt, spoke this afternoon at a news conference attended by relatives of four Lockerbie bombing victims at Syracuse University. Thirty-five students in an SU foreign studies program were among the 270 people who were killed in December 1988 when a bomb tore apart Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent, was the only person convicted in the terrorist attack.
He was released from prison and allowed to return to Libya to a hero’s welcome in August after a doctor said he likely would die within three months from prostate cancer. Nearly a year later, al-Megrahi is still alive and apparently not even close to death.
New British Prime Minister David Cameron today called the al-Megrahi’s release a mistake, but he did not call for a British investigation into BP’s role.
BP is a British company, but Schumer said it could be prosecuted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because the law applies to any corporation that does business in the United States and gives anything of value to foreign officials to influence foreign officials in their official capacity.