No conspiracy over Kelly's death, post-mortem suggests
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Oct 22, IRNA -- The British government on Friday attempted to allay conspiracy theories over the 2003 death of David Kelly by belatedly publishing a port-mortem report suggesting that the former Iraqi arms inspector died from “self-inflicted injury.”
“There is no positive pathological evidence that this man has been subjected to a sustained, violent assault prior to his death,” pathologist Nicholas Hunt said in his report at the time.
Kelly's body was found in woods close to his Oxfordshire home west of London after he was revealed to be the whistle-blower that suggested the UK exaggerated Iraq’s arms threat to justify joining the US-led invasion.
The publication of the autopsy together with a toxicology report comes after a group of prominent legal and medical experts, including former coroner Michael Powers, called for a full inquest, arguing the suicide verdict by the Hutton report into the death was unsafe.
Conspiracy theorists, including Liberal Democrat MP, Norman Baker, who is now a junior minister and has written a book on the case, have speculated that Britain’s foremost arms inspector in Iraq was deliberately murdered.
But the newly released postmortem reported that the “orientation and arrangement of the wounds over the left wrist are typical of self-inflicted injury.”
“The fact that the watch appears to have been removed whilst blood was already flowing suggests that it has been removed deliberately in order to facilitate access to the wrist. The removal of the watch in this way and indeed the removal of the spectacles and features pointing towards this being an act of self harm,” it said.
The Hutton report, ordered by Prime Minister Tony Blair at the time, was held instead of a normal coroner’s inquest, found Kelly had died from blood loss after slashing his wrist with a knife.
Last month, Hunt, who carried out the autopsy, joined in calls for a full inquest to be held, insisting that he had “nothing to hide” and that his death was a textbook suicide.
The release of the files by Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke comes after sustained pressure on Britain’s coalition government to reopen the case.
Clarke said he was making the report public 'in the interests of maintaining public confidence in the inquiry into how Dr Kelly came by his death'.
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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30033172
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