Britain’s ministry of defence intends to hold an independent judicial inquiry if a body found west of London on Friday proves to be that of the missing Iraqi weapons expert David Kelly, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesperson said.
”If it is Dr Kelly, it will be the ministry of defence’s intention to hold an independent judicial inquiry into the circumstances of his death. It goes without saying that the government will cooperate fully,” the spokesperson told reporters aboard a plane minutes before Blair touched down in Tokyo on the first leg of a tour of East Asia.
”I do not think today is the time to rush to judgement or jump to conclusions,” the spokesman added.
British police said the body had matched Kelly’s description but would not be formally identified until Saturday.
The leader of Britain’s opposition Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, welcomed the announcement of a possible inquiry.
”I welcome the fact the prime minister has said there will obviously have to be a full-scale inquiry into what on earth led to this happening.
”It would be wrong to comment further before we have more details of that but at the moment this is a desperately sad turn of events.”
Kelly (59) was identified as the possible source behind a BBC report in May that Blair’s office ”sexed up” a dossier on Baghdad’s weapons capabilities that was used to justify the war on Iraq in March.
Kelly disappeared on Thursday, two days after facing a parliamentary committee investigating the affair. During his interrogation, Kelly denied being the main source for the BBC report. – Sapa-AFP