UK approved millions paid to top #Saudi officials, London court told | Reuters

UK approved millions paid to top Saudi officials, London court told | Reuters

The British government facilitated millions of pounds of payments to senior Saudi Arabian officials over decades to win and maintain lucrative contracts, lawyers representing a former civil servant accused of corruption said on Monday.

Jeffrey Cook, the former managing director of an Airbus subsidiary GPT Special Project Management, is accused of paying nearly 9.7 million pounds ($12.2 million) to middlemen to win contracts with the Saudi Arabian National Guard.

Cook, formerly a civil servant with Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD), is charged with one count of corruption between 2007 and 2012 alongside John Mason.

Both men deny the charges and Cook's lawyer Tom Allen told jurors at Southwark Crown Court that payments were made to middlemen from the late 1970s "with the oversight, with the approval (and) with the encouragement of our government".

Prosecutor Mark Heywood said last week that Cook and Mason were at the heart of "deep corruption" to funnel bribes to top Saudi officials, including Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, son of the late King Abdullah.