BAE案件在阁下
CAAT新闻 | 五位资深法官技术上是阁下的委员会，因此听力在委员会阁下’屋子发生了，控制由Harold国王埋葬的一张巨大的绘画。 法官的头的仅上面(没有假发)从大多是可看见的公开位子，因为案件文件银行形成了墙壁横跨屋子。 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. 所有这些律师由讨生意者的队支持。 即使阁下’当局增加了一条额外长凳，这扈左一点空间在屋子里。
我们所有填入了- CAAT和壁角议院人民; 监护人`s Rob Evans，非常做暴露BAE腐败指控，那里与新闻工作者一起从其他纸、BBC和专家法律杂志; 代表从经济合作与开发组织，有关它的1997年反贿赂大会将使无意义，如果政府允许停止腐败询问作为在这种情况下，采取了丰富笔记; 彼得Gardiner，提供证据SFO的前BAE旅行代理人看了; 并且许多其他存在。
论据
政府的主角律师，乔纳森Sumption QC，首先去。 他争辩说， SFO的主任，比如一位独立检察官，有宽谨慎至于哪些情况他调查了或检控，他只必须行动`合理地’在做出他的决定。 他由外交部也制造一个证人声明为表示，与什么对比阁下Justice Moses在高等法院说，沙特阿拉伯人官员的注意是拉长到权力分立在政府和合法权利之间在英国。
大卫Pannick向此挑战。 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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