The Hill News

British Foreign Secretary William Hague told the Obama administration Saturday that there is “no evidence” behind claims that BP helped secure release of a Libyan man convicted of a 1988 airline bombing to protect an oil deal with Libya.

Hague’s letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton comes as several Senate lawmakers are alleging the embattled oil giant's interests in Libya played a role in the 2009 release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from a Scottish prison.

He was convicted in 2001 for the 1988 bombing of a Pan-Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland â€" an atrocity that killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.

“I know there has been much speculation over the connection between the conversations the previous British Government had with BP over their interests in Libya, and the Scottish decision to release Megrahi,” Hague said in the letter released by British officials.

“There is no evidence that corrobor! ates in any way the allegations of BP involvement in the Scottish Executive's decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds in 2009, nor any suggestion that the Scottish Executive decided to release Megrahi in order to facilitate oil deals for BP,” it states.

Several U.S. senators â€" including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) â€" in recent days have accused BP of colluding with British officials to win Megrahi’s release. The claims have heightened Capitol Hill antagonism toward BP, which is already under fire over the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and could complicate U.S.-British relations.

The issue could surface when British Prime Minister David Cameron meets with President Barack Obama next week.

Hague’s letter was also sent to Senate Foreign Relat! ions Com mittee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), who has scheduled a July 29 hearing into the bomber’s release.

Hague said the current British government believes the release was a mistake, but added, “while we disagree with the decision to release Megrahi, we must respect the legal and constitutional independence of the process that the Scottish Executive followed.”

“The decision to release Megrahi, as a prisoner in Scotland, was solely for the Scottish Executive to take. The process they followed was extensively investigated by the appropriate body â€" the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament â€" whose inquiry in February 2010 concluded that Scottish Executive followed due process under Scottish law," his letter states.

The Scottish government released Megrahi last August on compassionate grounds after a medical prognosis gave him just three months to live. But he remains alive in Libya.