LONDON – The British government rejected yesterday a request for a full inquest into the death of former UN Iraq weapons expert David Kelly, which caused one of the biggest crises of Tony Blair’s premiership.
“I have concluded that the evidence that Dr Kelly took his own life is overwhelmingly strong,” the government’s top legal officer, attorney general Dominic Grieve, told parliament.
“There is nothing I’ve seen that supports any allegation that Dr Kelly was murdered or that his death was the subject of any kind of conspiracy or cover-up,” he said, turning down a request from a group of doctors to ask the High Court to order a full inquest.
Kelly (59) was found dead in 2003 after being named as the source of a BBC report which accused then-prime minister Blair’s government of exaggerating the military threat posed by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to help build the case for war.
His death caused one of the biggest controversies of Mr Blair’s time in office and spawned conspiracy theories about the circumstances surrounding it.
Judge Lord Hutton led an independent inquiry into the death and concluded in 2004 that the scientist slit his left wrist after taking painkillers in countryside near his home. That did not end the controversy, though. Lawmaker Norman Baker, who investigated the death for a year, said in a 2007 interview he was convinced Kelly had been murdered.
Medical experts have questioned whether Kelly’s injuries were severe enough for him to bleed to death. Last year, a group of doctors, led by radiologist Stephen Frost, called for a full inquest into Kelly’s death, saying key evidence was not considered.
Mr Grieve said “no purpose would be served by my making an application to the High Court for an inquest and indeed I have no reasonable basis for doing so. There is no possibility that at an inquest a verdict other than suicide would be returned,” he said.
Dr Frost accused the government of being “complicit in a determined and concerted cover-up” and said the doctors would challenge Mr Grieve’s decision at the High Court.
Mr Grieve’s statement is the latest attempt by the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government to end the speculation over Mr Kelly’s death. – (Reuters)