The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) will appeal against a recent High Court judgment that it "acted unlawfully" when it dropped an investigation into bribery and corruption allegations over a BAE Systems arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

If the appeal is successful it could stop the bribery investigation being reopened.

The judgment, issued on April 10, was a sigificant victory for the anti-corruption groups that brought the case after the SFO dropped its investigation, citing national security concerns.

The SFO investigation, which was discontinued in December 2006, arose out of BAE’s £43 billion al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia in 1985, which provided Tornado and Hawk jets plus other military equipment.

When it was stopped, Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister, said that if the SFO had proceeded with its investigation, it would have damaged national security.

There will be a hearing tomorrow to certify that points of law of general public importance are involved.

Richard Alderman, the recently appointed director of the SFO, who replaced Robert Wardle, said: “The judgment of the Divisional Court raises principles of general public importance affecting, among other things, the independence of prosecutors and the role of the court in reviewing a prosecutor’s evaluation of the public interest in a case like this.

"The Court itself has commented that the issues raised in this case are important points of public interest.”

Lord Justice Moses told the High Court after the judgment: "No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice.

"It is the failure of government and the defendant to bear that essential principle in mind that justifies the intervention of this court.”

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