As if one corruption probe overshadowing Tony Blair (the Met police investigation into 'cash-for-honours') wasn't enough, today 130 international charities, churches and NGOs have written to the prime minister to demand he re-open the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the UK's arms deals with Saudi Arabia.
Last month the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, announced that the probe into the 20-year-old al-Yamamah arms deal brokered by Mrs Thatcher, and the disgraced former minister Jonathan Aitken, had been unceremoniously scrapped.
There are long-standing allegations of slush funds and bribery accompanying the deal between BAE and the Saudi regime. A National Audit Office report into the deal is the only NAO document ever to be withheld from publication.
Lord Goldsmith said he was scrapping the investigation to "safeguard national security".
Mr Blair defended the decision, saying; "Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is vitally important for our country in terms of counter-terrorism, in terms of the broader Middle East, in terms of helping in respect of Israel and Palestine. That strategic interest comes first."
But according to Christian Aid, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth and the other global signatories to today's letter, killling off the investigation has done "irreparable damage to the UK's reputation as an anti-corruption champion on the world stage".
Indeed, they go further, saying the move threatens to entirely undermine both the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's anti-bribery convention, and the more recent United Nations convention against corruption.
With the OECD already demanding a more detailed explanation of the early termination of the inquiry, and two NGOs threatening legal action over it, this issue shows no signs of being buried yet.
