Back in 2007, the British government unlawfully turned a blind eye to corruption and shut down an investigation into allegations that BAE paid the Saudi royal family hundreds of millions of pounds in bribes to secure a multi-billion pound arms deal in the 80's. Now, BAE is back in the gun again, with the Serious Fraud Office announcing that it will lay charges over corrupt arms deals in Tanzania, the Czech Republic, Romania and South Africa.
This is good news, but there's a hitch: the Attorney-General must consent to the prosecution. And while the flexible Lord Goldsmith has moved on, his replacement will be subject to the same pressure to dump the case to "protect British jobs" (and BAE's shareholders). If she does, then the UK will once again have shown that the law is worthless and that it does not care about corruption. And on their past performance, I'm not sure that the UK government can be trusted not to do that.
