April 12, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1429

LONDON, April 11: Like the Tony Blair government, Gordon Brown’s too appears determined to stonewall all efforts to probe the alleged bribery in a billion dollar arms deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia.

Responding within hours to a clear verdict of the High Court on Thursday morning against stopping the investigation, the Gordon government was seen vowing to drive through unprecedent statutory powers to oppose any investigations on national security grounds.

The bribery probe into BAE’s “Al Yamamah” arms programme was suspended after what was alleged to be threats from a Saudi prince to withdraw cooperation on intelligence and cancel the £20bn deal for 72 Eurofighter Typhoons.

The threat is believed to have been conveyed to the Tony Blair government right about the time when the Serious Fraud Office (SPO) was about to obtain access to Swiss bank accounts that investigators thought were linked to payments to agents.

Quoting the ministry of justice the media said the government would press on with a bill to give the attorney-general statutory powers to block corruption investigations on national security grounds. In this case, the government could only pressurise the SFO.

Lord Justice Moses told the court: “No-one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice. We intervene in fulfilment of our responsibility to protect the independence of the director and of our criminal justice system from threat.”