Special Report: The Libya Investment Firm and the Release of the Lockerbie BomberTHE TELEGRAPH:
Americans are questioning why a company was set up in London a week after news broke that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, may be released.
Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in Tripoli. Photo: The TelegraphThe terraced house just around the corner from the American embassy in London looks like most in the affluent street. Tall and elegant, only the shiny brass plaque gives a clue to what lies beyond the black front door.
The name reads Dalia Advisory Limited, a company established by Libyan businessmen just a week after the country's officials were told the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was being considered for release on compassionate grounds.
Dalia Advisory is in fact a "front" for the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), a sovereign wealth fund with £80 billion, to invest in Britain and beyond. The Georgian town house, bought for £6 million, is, ironically, only a few yards from the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.
Senior business sources have told The Sunday Telegraph that had Megrahi died in a British jail, the LIA would have taken its vast sums elsewhere. "If Megrahi had perished in Scotland, we would have become a pariah state as far as the Libyans were concerned," said one source.
Oliver Miles, a former ambassador to Libya and now deputy chairman of the Libyan British Business Council, said: "At the time of his release everyone knew that if he died in a Scottish jail, it would be bad for our relations."
But some 1,500 miles from the LIA's Mayfair headquarters, Megrahi, 58, is clinging defiantly to life despite his terminal cancer – much to the embarrassment of the authorities in Britain.
The former Libyan intelligence officer is living at government expense in a prosperous Tripoli suburb in a two-storey villa surrounded by gardens, where he is looked after by his wife, their five children and a team of medics.
He enjoys superstar status, repeatedly feted as a "much-loved" hero of the Libyan people. According to Megrahi's family, he has received up to 30,000 house guests – a white tent was erected in the garden for visitors – while newborn babies across Libya have been named after him. Gaddafi family members have also made several private visits, friends say.
But he is said to be lower in spirits than when he first arrived home, and does not leave the house – spending much of his time propped up in bed, sedated for the pain.
Prof Karol Sikora, one of the doctors who suggested Megrahi had just three months to live, insists that there is no miraculous recovery. "I am well-informed he is dying; he is just not dying as fast as we predicted," he said. Scottish authorities insist that the study by Prof Sikora and two other doctors, which was paid for by Libya, had not been considered and was not a contributory factor to Megrahi's release.
However long Megrahi now survives, the fact is business between Britain and Libya is currently booming. British exports to Libya are now double what they were a year ago while imports from Libya have risen three fold. In the first two months of this year alone, the UK exported £110 million of goods and services.
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