MP lists doubts over suicide verdict
by Argus news team
Monday, 24 July 2006

 http://www.theargus.co.uk/the_argus/news/NEWS0.html

A Sussex MP has challenged an official inquiry's verdict that Iraqi weapons inspector David Kelly committed suicide.

Dr Kelly was the man at the centre of a furore over the Government's "sexed up" dossier on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction.

Now Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, has published his own dossier of evidence which he believes casts doubt on the Hutton Inquiry's key conclusion that Dr Kelly killed himself in 2003.

Dr Kelly was the source for a notorious BBC report suggesting intelligence officials were unhappy with the Government's warning that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction could be fired within 45 minutes.

After his name became public, Dr Kelly was subjected to a televised grilling by a parliamentary committee, followed by further questioning behind closed doors by a second committee.

Within days he went missing from his Oxfordshire home and his body was found in nearby woodland.

In his dossier, Mr Baker highlighted concerns over the claim Dr Kelly committed suicide:

Dr Kelly is said to have cut his ulnar artery in his wrist, an inaccessible and minor artery which would be difficult and painful to sever.

Paramedics said he had lost little blood and was "incredibly unlikely" to have died.

Police said 29 tablets of the painkiller coproxamol were missing from his home but all that was found in Dr Kelly's stomach was the equivalent of one-fifth of a tablet.

The volunteer searchers who found his body said he was slumped against a tree, not lying prone, as police said. They did not see a bottle of water and a watch later found by police.

Conversations and e-mails before he died showed no sign of suicidal thoughts. He was said to be looking forward to his daughter's wedding.

The Hutton Inquiry's website records the police operation relating to Dr Kelly's disappearance as being launched before he was reported missing. Police took the "bizarre" step of removing Mrs Kelly from their house and searching it with dogs.

The pathologist appointed to investigate his death was one of the least experienced on the Home Office list.

Lord Hutton, selected by Tony Blair at "breakneck speed", had never conducted a public inquiry, said Mr Baker.

He added: "Many people find it hard to accept Dr Kelly's death was suicide."