The Home Office has denied taking an excessive amount of time to consider a US request for information on the BAE-Saudi Arabia arms deal case.
Its statement follows a report in today's Guardian which claims a mutual legal assistance (MLA) request filed over two months ago by the US department of justice has yet to be forwarded to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
According to the Guardian, US officials are already taking witness statements, despite the lack of an MLA preventing the SFO from releasing documents about the case
"This request is receiving due consideration. This is certainly not an unprecedented length of time for a case of this kind to be considered," a Home Office spokesperson said.
Last December then-attorney general Lord Goldsmith stopped the SFO's investigation into BAE Systems' lucrative sale of 72 al-Yamamah fighter planes to Saudi Arabia, saying it would compromise national security.
Allegations that the Saudi royal family had siphoned funds from the deal into a private account fuelled suspicions of corruption but these have been denied by all parties and never proved.
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