No BP witness at hearing on Lockerbie bomber

[October 23, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Senate committee is holding a hearing on BP's role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber, but will be missing a key witness -- BP's outgoing CEO.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is looking into whether the British-based oil company had sought Abdel Baset al-Megrahi's release to help get a $900 million exploration agreement with Libya. Senators were rebuffed in attempts to get outgoing BP CEO Tony Hayward to testify.

Al-Megrahi served eight years of a life sentence for the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground. Scotland's government released the cancer-stricken man on compassionate grounds last year and he returned to Libya.

[Associated Press; By FREDERIC J. FROMMER]

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