February 16, 2008 (EIRNS)--The British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is blaming Saudi Arabian pressure and threats as the reason why they called off their investigation of corruption related to massive sales of Aircraft and other arms by BAE Systems, a supra-national entity of the British empire. Both the British government and the SFO have been in court in a case brought by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade and Corner House Research, which is demanding the government to reopen the BAE scandal of the century.

Lawyers for the SFO told the High Court that the decision to drop the case in December 2006 by Robert Wardle, the SFO director, was made because of security fears "in light of the Islamist terrorist threat'' and the possibility of another 7/7-style bombing attack in Britain.

The court heard on Thursday, lawyers for CAAT and Corner House argue that Tony Blair, then Prime Minister, had put "irresistible pressure'' on the SFO to drop the investigation, not because of security concerns, but for fear of losing the huge commercial deal.

According to a report in today's Guardian, in response to questioning from Lord Justice Moses, Peter Sales, a lawyer for the SFO, said: "We in the UK can't compel the Saudi Arabian Government to adopt a different stance. It may be a matter of regret that the UK doesn't have the power to ensure that other states, big or small ... don't do what we want them to do. The world doesn't work that way.'' In contradiction to Sales' claim that security had been the only issue involved in the decision, Mr Justice Sullivan, the second judge presiding over the case said that the court had 500 documents that showed other issues had been taken into account.

Lawyers for the two NGOs, said the Government had not denied that Prince Bandar bin Sultan, whose bank accounts in the U.S. have been frozen because of a bribery investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, had advised Blair in a meeting in July 2006 to stop the inquiry or BAE would lose the multi billion dollar contract to buy Eurofighter jets. That contract was signed in September last year.

The High Court will decide whether or not stopping the decision was legal. It can order the SFO to reconsider its decision, if it was illegal. Although the hearing is now over, the judges have not reached a decision and said that they would give their ruling as soon as possible.