Caso de BAE en los señores
Noticias de CAAT | Los cinco jueces mayores son técnico un comité de los señores así que la audiencia ocurrió en un cuarto de los señores' comité, dominado por una pintura enorme del entierro de rey Harold. Solamente las tapas de las cabezas de los jueces (sin las pelucas) eran visibles la mayor parte de de los asientos públicos pues los bancos de los documentos del caso formaron una pared a través del cuarto. Between the Judges and the rest of us sat eleven bewigged barristers – CAAT and The Corner House had four (David Pannick QC, Philippe Sands QC, Dinah Rose QC and Ben Jaffey) and the Government five, whilst ‘interested party’ BAE, and ‘intervener’ Justice, a human rights and law reform organisation, had one apiece. A los equipos de abogados movieron hacia atrás a todos estos abogados. Aun cuando autoridades de los señores las' habían agregado un banco adicional, este espacio izquierdo del retinue pequeño en el cuarto.
Abarrotamos todo adentro - a CAAT y a gente de la esquina de la casa; el robo Evans del `s del guarda, que había hecho tanto para exponer las alegaciones de la corrupción de BAE, estaba allí junto con periodistas de otros papeles, del BBC y de los compartimientos legales del especialista; los representantes de la organización para la cooperación y el desarrollo económicos, referida que su convención 1997 del Contra-Soborno será hecha sin setido si el gobierno se permite parar investigaciones de la corrupción como en este caso, tomaron notas copiosas; Peter Gardiner, el agente anterior del recorrido de BAE que dio evidencia al SFO miraba encendido; y muchos otros estaban presentes.
Las discusiones
El abogado del plomo del gobierno, Jonatán Sumption QC, fue primero. Él discutió que el director del SFO, como querellante independiente, tuviera una discreción amplia en cuanto a qué casos él investigó o procesó, él apenas tuviera que actuar `razonablemente' en tomar sus decisiones. Él también produjo una declaración del testigo de la oficina extranjera en un intento por demostrar que, en contraste con qué señor Justice Moses había dicho en la tribunal superior, la atención de funcionarios de Arabia Saudita había sido exhausta a la separación de energías entre el gobierno y las autoridades legales en el Reino Unido.
David Pannick desafió esto. He said the rule of law had to prevail and that this demanded that the SFO did not give into threats by Saudi Arabia to withdraw cooperation on anti-terrorism until all other options had been exhausted and, even then, only if it was strictly necessary. The Government, he said, did not meet this test, as all bar one of the approaches to Saudi Arabia listed in the Foreign Office statement had been made before the threats were issued and all were fairly casual mentions in the course of other meetings. Additionally, the UK did not seem to have reminded Saudi Arabia of its anti-terrorism commitments.
With regards to the OECD Convention, Dinah Rose argued that this was a relevant consideration because the SFO Director said his decision was made in accordance with it – the question was whether ‘national security’ was an implied exemption or not and she said not – whilst the Government said it was up to the OECD to decide on this issue.
No decision as yet
There was very little intervention by the Judges as the barristers made their submissions. This, we were told, is unusual. Each of five Judges now considers the submissions, looks up the precedents and writes his or her own speech – the verdict is the majority view. The result will be announced, most likely in October, when the Judges’ committee reports to the full House of Lords. Justice?
Campaign update
The House of Lords has overturned the High Court’s ruling that the Government broke the law by stopping the corruption investigation into BAE Systems’ Saudi arms deals. The case had been brought by CAAT and The Corner House with widespread support.
The Serious Fraud Office’s appeal was heard by the House of Lords on the 7th and 8th of July and judgment was given on 30th July.
One of the judges, Baroness Hale, said that she would have liked to have been able to say that it was wrong to stop the investigation as it was “extremely distasteful that an independent public official should feel himself obliged to give way to threats of any sort.” However, she had to agree with her colleagues that the decision taken by the SFO Director was lawful.
The judgment means that those with powerful friends prepared to make threats can effectively evade justice, particularly if the threats are couched in terms of national security. The ruling also confirms that the UK government has driven a coach and horses through a key international anti-bribery convention to protect its friends in BAE.
CAAT and The Corner House are not dejected by the result as it has brought the whole issue into the public realm and clarified the law.
Have Your Say: BAE case in the Lords
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