The decision followed a legal challenge brought jointly by CAAT and The Corner House, a respected organisation that has worked on anti-corruption issues for many years. In a strongly worded judgment on 10th April, the Court described how BAE and the Saudi regime had lobbied Tony Blair and his ministers to have the investigation dropped. The judges went so far as to describe the Saudi threat as a ‘successful attempt by a foreign government to pervert the course of justice in the United Kingdom’.

The history

The legal challenge began sixteen months previously, at the end of 2006. At that point, SFO investigators had spent two and a half years delving into allegations that BAE paid multi-million pound bribes to Saudi princes to secure the arms deals known as Al Yamamah. In autumn 2006, the media reported that the Saudi regime was threatening not to sign a deal with BAE for Eurofighter Typhoons if the investigation was not stopped. Apologists for the arms trade appeared in the media to make wildly exaggerated claims about the number of British jobs dependent on the sale.

The investigation was terminated on 14th December 2006. Within days CAAT and The Corner House had instructed solicitors at Leigh Day & Co and barristers from Blackstone Chambers to begin a claim for judicial review. This is the process by which a court considers whether a public body has behaved unlawfully.

A long process followed, with moments of both joy and exasperation. BAE spied on CAAT and got hold of an email containing advice from our lawyers. A comedy gig organised by Mark Thomas, with comedians including Russell Brand and Ed Byrne, raised thousands of pounds for the legal challenge. We applied successfully for a Protective Costs Order, placing a limit on how much CAAT would have to pay if we lost the case. Our claim for judicial review was initially rejected, but in November the High Court gave permission for it to proceed. Finally, in February, the hearing took place.

Documents released during the hearing exposed the lengths to which BAE was prepared to go to stop the investigation. They revealed that the company had lobbied the SFO to have it dropped as early as 2005. At that point, the SFO told BAE quite clearly that commercial and political considerations were not valid reasons for stopping a criminal investigation. During the following year the SFO obtained access to Swiss bank accounts and Tony Blair was personally lobbied by the Saudi prince Bandar – an individual who was himself at the centre of the corruption allegations. As his threats included the withdrawal of cooperation over fighting terrorism, BAE and the UK government were able to use ‘national security’ as a fig-leaf to cover up their motivations.

Decision unlawful

Contrary to Blair’s claim to be protecting the UK, the High Court found that the UK’s adherence to the rule of law had been undermined by the decision to drop the investigation in the face of the Saudi threat. The judges, Alan Moses and Jeremy Sullivan, ruled that the SFO’s director ‘failed to appreciate that protection of the rule of law demanded that he should not yield to the threat’. They added that surrender to a threat ‘merely encourages those with power, in a position of strategic and political importance, to repeat such threats’. It was not the investigation, but the decision to cut it short, that had endangered national security.

The judges went on: ‘There is no evidence whatever that any consideration was given as to how to persuade the Saudis to withdraw the threat, let alone any attempt made to resist the threat’. They then moved on to a vital point about motivations: ‘Too ready a submission may give rise to the suspicion that the threat was not the real ground for the decision at all; rather it was a useful pretext. It is obvious, in the present case, that the decision to halt the investigation suited the objectives of the executive. Stopping the investigation avoided uncomfortable consequences, both commercial and diplomatic.’

The judgment was welcomed by a wide range of newspapers (see page 12), politicians from all the main parties and others. Messages of congratulation flooded in to the offices of CAAT and The Corner House, by post, email and phone. The Government and BAE were alarmed. Clutching at straws, several right-wing columnists – who sixteen months before were confidently predicting that our challenge had no chance of success – suddenly revived their commitment to British jobs. Their claims were even less believable this time. BAE has already admitted that most of the jobs created by its latest Saudi deal will not even be based in the UK. Lord Woolf’s report into BAE’s ethics was greeted with similar derision for its failure to consider some of the most basic ethical issues about the arms trade (see page 3).

Government to appeal

The Government almost immediately announced its intention to appeal against the decision. The appeal will be heard by the House of Lords on 7th and 8th July. Considering the questions raised by the case to be of general public importance, the High Court has ordered the Government to pay all the costs both for the case so far and for the appeal regardless of the outcome.

The High Court’s decision means that the investigation is technically reopened. However, the new director of the SFO, Richard Alderman, has said that he will make no decision in practice until after the House of Lords has ruled on the appeal.

Regardless of the outcome, the political repercussions of the High Court victory should not be underestimated. The arms industry in the UK is struggling to get used to the fact that it can no longer expect to have everything its own way. Ministers know that their subservience to arms dealers is coming under greater public scrutiny. BAE has discovered that it cannot always bully its way to the desired result and the Saudi regime has realised that the British people do not share their Government’s willingness to submit to human rights abusers.

Just as importantly, public and media awareness has shot up on the issue of arms companies’ influence in the corridors of power. People from all walks of life are determined to campaign against this situation, recognizing that it is as harmful for the UK’s democracy and economy as it is for international peace and security. And more people than ever are now aware that CAAT is a key organisation working to change this situation.

One more thing is very clear. While staff at CAAT and The Corner House, along with our barristers and solicitors, have worked extremely hard on this case, we could not have done it with out the encouragement and help of thousands of supporters. Countless individuals have made donations to CAAT, lobbied their MPs, written to their local papers and gone out on to the streets to promote the campaign. Many have offered encouragement that has kept the staff going at the most difficult times. Our success would not be possible without them. This, then, is a victory for every CAAT supporter and for everyone committed to justice, accountability and peace.