BRITAIN-IRAQ/INQUIRY UK families of Iraq War dead threaten legal action over inquiry delay

Record ID: 134665

  • Title: BRITAIN-IRAQ/INQUIRY UK families of Iraq War dead threaten legal action over inquiry delay
  • Date: 13th August 2015
  • Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FILE - MARCH 21, 2003) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOT) VARIOUS NIGHT SHOTS OF BOMBARDMENT EXPLOSIONS ON BAGHDAD SKYLINE PRESIDENTIAL COMPOUND BUILDING ON FIRE WITH SMALL DOMED BUILDING IN FOREGROUND VARIOUS NIGHT SHOTS OF EXPLOSIONS ON BAGHDAD SKYLINE BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FILE - MARCH 26, 2003) (REUTERS) PAN OF STREET TO BURNT MARKET / PEOPLE AROUND MARKET / BODY BEING CARR
  • Embargoed: 28th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA11GOFEBOYXQECRN152O2T4JHN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Families of British soldiers killed following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 threatened on Thursday (August 13) to take legal action unless a long-awaited report from a public inquiry into the war is published, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.
    Lawyers representing 29 families have given the inquiry, set up six years ago to learn lessons from the conflict, two more weeks to give a publication date by the end of the year or they will take the issue to London's High Court.
    "The reason we have taken legal action now is that we feel Sir John has been dragging his feet far too long. This inquiry has been going on for six years. It's not months overdue, it is years overdue," said Reg Keys, whose son Tom was killed in Iraq in 2003.
    He blames Sir John Chilcot, the head of the inquiry for failing to publish the report, after previously promising to release it after Britain's general election in May.
    Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered the inquiry, headed by former civil servant Chilcot, in 2009 and it was initially expected to take only a year to finish.
    Its report is expected to shed light on how the then Prime Minister Tony Blair decided to support the U.S.-led war in which 179 British service personnel were killed.
    In February, Chilcot told a parliamentary committee he could not say when the report will be completed because of its complexity and the need to obtain responses from people criticised in the report.
    He wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron in June to say only when all these responses had been submitted and evaluated "will I be able to write to you with a realistic timetable for completion".
    Cameron responded by saying he was "fast losing patience" with the process.
    "We've had enough, there are people out there, bereaved people, who want answers, who want conclusions to Iraq," said Keys.
    He added that he doubted if the report would provide any immediate resolution as to the legality of the conflict which was opposed by many Britons.
    Jeremy Corbyn, a leading candidate to lead the Labour Party once headed by Blair, has said he believed the conflict was illegal and Blair should be tried for war crimes if it was shown he had broken international law.
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