Iraq War Chilcot Inquiry Delays Prompt Dead Soldiers' Families To Threaten Legal Action

Dead Soldier's Father Wants 'War Criminal Blair Dragged Off In Shackles'
|

Families of soldiers killed in the Iraq War will take legal action if the Chilcot Inquiry is not published by the end of the year, the father of one of the war dead has said.

Reg Keys, whose son Lance Corporal Tom Keys was killed in Iraq in 2003 aged 20, criticised inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot for not understanding the feelings of the bereaved.

Mr Keys is part of a group of 29 families who have issued a legal ultimatum to Sir John, believing the law requiring inquiries to be concluded in a reasonable timeframe may have been breached.

Open Image Modal

John Chilcot has insisted his inquiry is making 'significant progress'

Much of the anger is focused on the ongoing "Maxwellisation" process, which gives the opportunity to individuals facing possible criticism in the report to respond and is holding up publication.

The delay has been a growing source of frustration for Prime Minister David Cameron, who has demanded a timetable for publication be set out "pretty soon", but Whitehall sources do not expect one before Parliament returns in September.

Sir John insisted last month that his inquiry - launched in 2009 - was making "significant progress", although he could not set a date for the publication of his findings.

But Mr Keys said the families of soldiers killed need closure and called on Sir John to publish the report by the end of 2015 or face legal action.

He criticised Sir John for failing to grasp the gravity of the war and insisted that there is no legal requirement for the inquiry to go through the Maxwellisation process.

Mr Keys told the Today programme: "I think what Sir John doesn't understand is the strength of feeling amongst the bereaved.

"I think what Sir John has to bear in mind now is that we want closure on this, it has to be done fair, it has to be done right.

"But he's had time enough now and he's not imposing deadlines on this and that's where our argument is, we want to give a deadline now, by the end of the year or legal action will be following."

Mr Keys said the failure to publish the inquiry is stopping him moving on from his son's death.

He said: "Tom was killed in 2003 and Iraq bubbles up in the headlines over the years and it's like an open wound that is continually prodded.

"The only way for me to move on from this now is to consign Iraq to history and part of doing so is to get this inquiry published.

"Yes I'd like to see Tony Blair dragged in shackles off to court as a war criminal because we have to bear in mind 180 British service personnel were killed here, over 3,500 wounded, two million Iraqis fled Iraq, over 100,000 innocent Iraqis have been killed.

"This is an inquiry into a war. This isn't an inquiry into, I don't know, the price of milk, the price of rail travel or the price of energy, and I don't think Sir John has actually got that to be honest, the gravity of what's happened here."