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http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2051587,00.html
London - Britain's Serious Fraud Office is investigating alleged "substantial payments" from BAE Systems to a senior South African defence ministry official over a 1999 arms deal, The Guardian said on Saturday.
The newspaper said the SFO was liaising with South Africa's organised crime unit to probe the accounts of Fana Hlongwane, a prominent businessman and former adviser to the country's late former defence minister Joe Modise.
Modise, who quit the post in 1999 and died in 2001, was named in a South African parliamentary report that year as being involved in a company that stood to benefit from an overall $5.5bn arms procurement deal.
The deal included the purchase of 12 trainer Hawk jets from Saab and BAE worth £1.5bn but investigators said the Pretoria government was not fully told of its costs and some contractors were treated more favourably.
The Guardian, which has alleged impropriety on the part of BAE Systems in a number of arms deals for a number of years, said on Saturday the SFO was also investigating the British defence company's southern Africa agent.
SFO detectives were expected to travel to Pretoria in weeks, it said in a report from Johannesburg, quoting unnamed SA sources.
The newspaper said BAE Systems declined to comment on the specifics of the SFO investigation but quoted a spokesman as saying it was "fully co-operating" with the probe. Hlongwane was said to be unavailable for comment.
The report comes as the British government is facing international pressure to explain its decision to halt an SFO probe into a controversial arms deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s.
Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith, the government's chief legal adviser, announced on December 14 that the SFO had halted its investigation into claims BAE Systems had set up a slush fund for some Saudi royal family members.
He claimed the decision was made in the interests of national and international security.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said years of "ill feeling" between Britain and "a key partner and ally" would have developed if the investigation had been allowed to proceed.
The SFO is said to be investigating allegations of corrupt payments by BAE Systems to politicians and officials in Tanzania, Chile, the Czech Republic and Romania.
London - Britain's Serious Fraud Office is investigating alleged "substantial payments" from BAE Systems to a senior South African defence ministry official over a 1999 arms deal, The Guardian said on Saturday.
The newspaper said the SFO was liaising with South Africa's organised crime unit to probe the accounts of Fana Hlongwane, a prominent businessman and former adviser to the country's late former defence minister Joe Modise.
Modise, who quit the post in 1999 and died in 2001, was named in a South African parliamentary report that year as being involved in a company that stood to benefit from an overall $5.5bn arms procurement deal.
The deal included the purchase of 12 trainer Hawk jets from Saab and BAE worth £1.5bn but investigators said the Pretoria government was not fully told of its costs and some contractors were treated more favourably.
The Guardian, which has alleged impropriety on the part of BAE Systems in a number of arms deals for a number of years, said on Saturday the SFO was also investigating the British defence company's southern Africa agent.
SFO detectives were expected to travel to Pretoria in weeks, it said in a report from Johannesburg, quoting unnamed SA sources.
The newspaper said BAE Systems declined to comment on the specifics of the SFO investigation but quoted a spokesman as saying it was "fully co-operating" with the probe. Hlongwane was said to be unavailable for comment.
The report comes as the British government is facing international pressure to explain its decision to halt an SFO probe into a controversial arms deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s.
Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith, the government's chief legal adviser, announced on December 14 that the SFO had halted its investigation into claims BAE Systems had set up a slush fund for some Saudi royal family members.
He claimed the decision was made in the interests of national and international security.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said years of "ill feeling" between Britain and "a key partner and ally" would have developed if the investigation had been allowed to proceed.
The SFO is said to be investigating allegations of corrupt payments by BAE Systems to politicians and officials in Tanzania, Chile, the Czech Republic and Romania.