UK Fraud Office wins right to appeal in Saudi case

LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) won the right on Thursday to appeal against a London High Court ruling which sharply criticised the halting of a corruption investigation into a Saudi arms deal.

In the April 10 ruling, two judges had said the SFO had capitulated to threats from the Saudi royal family over arms deals with Europe's biggest defence company, BAE Systems Plc (BAES.L).

On Thursday, the two judges, Lord Justice Alan Moses and Justice Jeremy Sullivan, formally quashed the decision of the SFO to drop an investigation.

At the same time they gave the SFO the go-ahead to appeal to the House of Lords, Britain's highest court, against their ruling.

The appeal is now expected to be heard towards the end of this year though no date has yet been fixed.

Two anti-arms trade campaigners had said there was "very large scale bribery" of senior Saudi Arabian officials by the arms manufacturer over the state-to-state Al Yamamah deal and said the probe was halted after the threats.

Critics have attacked former Prime Minister Tony Blair for saying it was right to halt the investigation, which he said would damage Britain's national security if it went ahead.

Arms sales to Saudi Arabia under the Al Yamamah pact dating back to the 1980s are Britain's biggest export deals and their cancellation would threaten thousands of jobs. (Reporting by Paul Majendie; Editing by Quentin Bryar)