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LONDON - A British MP says a former United Nations weapons inspector David Kelly did not commit suicide as official accounts state, but may have been murdered.
Critics of a book published by Norman Baker, of the opposition Liberal Democrats, describe its accusations as absurd. Kelly was found dead in woods near his home in July 2003, just days after it was revealed that he was the source for a BBC report that said Blair's Government had deliberately "sexed-up" intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Senior judge Lord Hutton carried out an independent inquiry and ruled that Kelly had slit his left wrist after taking painkillers in countryside near his home in Oxfordshire.
Baker, in his book The Strange Death of David Kelly, said it was virtually impossible to kill yourself in the manner Kelly had, there was a lack of blood at the scene, and no fingerprints were on the knife.
Kelly had also booked a flight to Iraq for the following week, his wife was unwell, his daughter was shortly to be married and he left no suicide note.
Baker's top suspects are a group of Iraqis loyal to Iraq's former President Saddam Hussein.
- Reuters
