Fouad Makhzoumi

In our article, 'Arms dealer's wife donated £300,000 to Conservative Party', (24 February 2011) we referred to Mr Makhzoumi as an arms dealer. Mr Makhzoumi was involved in the sale of second hand military equipment from the British to the Lebanese government in 1995 but has asked us to point out that his role was merely to introduce the Lebanese authorities to the UK Ministry of Defence and that he received no benefit from this deal. While Jonathan Aitken brought libel proceedings over the reporting of (among other things) his involvement with this deal, his subsequent conviction for perjury arose from matters unrelated to Mr Makhzoumi who was not accused of any misconduct, and it was incorrect for our picture caption to suggest otherwise. We apologise to Mr Makhzoumi.'