Hammersmith Apollo last night hosted a comedy benefit, "A Seriously Funny Attempt to the get the Serious Fraud Office in the dock!" The proceeds from the gig, featuring comics including Mark Steel, Omid Djalili and Russell Brand will go to help fund the Campaign Against the Arms Trade's (CAAT) judicial review to restart the SFO's prosecution of BAe Systems' for alleged illegal bribery of Saudi ministers.
Organised by the tireless Mark Thomas on behalf of CATT and The Corner House the gig also featured Simon Anstell, Ed Byrne, Robin Ince, Stewart Lee and Josie Long with MC Jo Caulfield.
As accompanying literature explained, the background to the case is that Britain's biggest arms company, BAe Systems is alleged to have paid bribes to a Saudi prince in return for which his country spent billions with them buying arms.
The Serious Fraud Office investigated these claims and was on the point of bringing charges when Blair, then Prime Minister, stepped in and told them to drop the investigation. Although his objection was couched in terms of national security, it appeared that the Saudis had ordered this on pain of cancelling a further deal for 72 Eurofighter jets.
That could have been the end of the matter had Britain not been a signatory to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention - and this is where the forty grand becomes important. The convention is binding on signatories, so by hushing up the bribery investigation the government effectively broke the law and is being challenged on this by CATT and The Corner House.
All this comes against a background of state hypocrisy and corruption. Ministers have frequently spoken out against corruption, picturing it as being a general characteristic of foreign dictators and regimes, but omitting to mention that the other signatory to such deals frequently lies closer to home.
Indeed it turns out the UK government itself may be implicated in the bribery scandal. Investigations by both The Guardian and Panorama have turned up allegations that since 1985 the governments of Thatcher, Major and Blair have used Ministry of Defence bank accounts to facilitate corrupt payments to a foreign official.
The gig and the challenge come at a crucial time.
Last week BAe's deal went through when it sold 72 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in a deal known as Project Salaam - "Peace"
How solid will that deal be if CAAT - financed by Thomas' comedy night - puts this mucky affair back in the spotlight?
More from CATT here:
http://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/controlBAE/index.php
Activist pack here: http://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/controlBAE/ControlBAE_materials.php
Corner House documents here: http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/subject/corruption/
BBC timeline here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6182137.stm
As accompanying literature explained, the background to the case is that Britain's biggest arms company, BAe Systems is alleged to have paid bribes to a Saudi prince in return for which his country spent billions with them buying arms.
The Serious Fraud Office investigated these claims and was on the point of bringing charges when Blair, then Prime Minister, stepped in and told them to drop the investigation. Although his objection was couched in terms of national security, it appeared that the Saudis had ordered this on pain of cancelling a further deal for 72 Eurofighter jets.
That could have been the end of the matter had Britain not been a signatory to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention - and this is where the forty grand becomes important. The convention is binding on signatories, so by hushing up the bribery investigation the government effectively broke the law and is being challenged on this by CATT and The Corner House.
All this comes against a background of state hypocrisy and corruption. Ministers have frequently spoken out against corruption, picturing it as being a general characteristic of foreign dictators and regimes, but omitting to mention that the other signatory to such deals frequently lies closer to home.
Indeed it turns out the UK government itself may be implicated in the bribery scandal. Investigations by both The Guardian and Panorama have turned up allegations that since 1985 the governments of Thatcher, Major and Blair have used Ministry of Defence bank accounts to facilitate corrupt payments to a foreign official.
The gig and the challenge come at a crucial time.
Last week BAe's deal went through when it sold 72 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in a deal known as Project Salaam - "Peace"
How solid will that deal be if CAAT - financed by Thomas' comedy night - puts this mucky affair back in the spotlight?
More from CATT here:
http://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/controlBAE/index.php Activist pack here:
http://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/controlBAE/ControlBAE_materials.php Corner House documents here:
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/subject/corruption/ BBC timeline here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6182137.stm 
