USA Africa Dialogue Series - LSE professor was forced to quit Saif Gaddafi foundation

LSE professor was forced to quit Saif Gaddafi foundation
PhD tutor joined board after Libyan leader's son gave £1.5m donation
to university

Jamie Doward

The Observer, Sunday 6 March 2011

Saif Gaddafi's PhD from the London School of Economics is being
investigated following allegations of plagiarism. Photograph: Mast
Irham/EPA
The ruling body of the London School of Economics was so concerned
about the university's burgeoning links to the Gaddafi regime that in
2009 it quietly forced one of its professors to stand down from a
foundation run by the dictator's son.

The revelation raises questions about why – apparently in spite of its
concerns over the academic's role – the LSE council was prepared to
accept a £1.5m donation from Saif al-Islam Gaddafi two years ago. Last
week the row over the donation resulted in the resignation of the
council's director, Sir Howard Davies, and the launch of an
investigation into links between the LSE and the Libyan regime.

Now it has emerged that David Held, a professor of political science
at the LSE and Saif Gaddafi's tutor when he was taking a PhD at the
university, was appointed to the Gaddafi International Charity and
Development Foundation on 28 June 2009, almost a month before the LSE
announced that it would accept the donation.

The foundation's minutes reveal that Held was appointed to its board
along with luminaries including Giulio Andreotti, the former prime
minister of Italy, Nobel prizewinner Professor Richard J Roberts, and
the Rev Dr Chung Hwan Kwak, chairman of the Universal Peace
Federation, an offshoot of the Unification Church founded by Sun Myung
Moon. But by October Held had been forced to stand down after members
of the university's council expressed disquiet.

While ostensibly a charity, the foundation seemed to be chiefly a
vehicle for promoting Saif Gaddafi's autocratic views. Its latest
minutes are effectively an attack by Gaddafi on press reports
suggesting he was engaged in a power struggle with his brothers and
lived in an expensive house in London.

Bizarrely, the foundation also released a statement saying it would
sue anyone who suggested there had been a reshuffle in the General
People's Committee in Libya.

A spokesman for the LSE said Held "was not on the board of the
foundation at the time the £1.5m gift was discussed, and accepted, by
council on the 23 June 2009. Following the 23 October 2009 council
meeting, Professor Held resigned from the board on the advice of
council. David Held received no payment for his role."

The LSE has commissioned an independent inquiry into its financial
dealings with Libya, including a £2.2m contract to train Libyan
officials. The university is also investigating claims that Gaddafi
plagiarised parts of his PhD.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011

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