Jury discharged in trial of UK middlemen accused of Saudi bribes

Jeffrey Cook, 65, and John Mason, 79, deny making corrupt payments to senior Saudis in exchange for contracts

The jury has been discharged in the trial of two men accused of funnelling bribes totalling millions of pounds to a Saudi prince and other high-ranking officials to secure lucrative commercial contracts.

During the trial which started in May, the Serious Fraud Office alleged that a total of 9.7m was paid to Prince Miteb bin Abdullah and a group of senior Saudi officials to land the contracts for a British subsidiary of the European aerospace group Airbus.