Families of Iraq war dead prepare to do battle in court
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The families of British soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed during the Iraq conflict will seize upon the publication of the Attorney General's advice to support their claim for a full judicial inquiry into the war.
The families of British soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed during the Iraq conflict will seize upon the publication of the Attorney General's advice to support their claim for a full judicial inquiry into the war.
Lawyers representing 40 Iraqi families, who have already brought legal actions in the UK courts, said the revelation that the government knew the war might be illegal radically changed the complexion of their case.
Phil Shiner, the human rights lawyer taking the landmark case, said that it would also be possible for the families of the soldiers killed in the conflict to show that they too were victims under the European Convention of Human Rights and were entitled to a proper investigation.
Last year, the High Court ruled that the human rights legislation extended to Iraqi territory that was under the control of British forces. Mr Shiner said that both British and Iraqi families, might want the terms of a judicial inquiry to include whether ministers were responsible for prosecuting an aggressive war. "Quite simply, the publication means we have a much stronger case when we go the Court of Appeal in July to ask for a full inquiry into the deaths of Iraqi civilians killed by British troops," Mr Shiner said.
Families of some of the British soldiers killed in Iraq said they were preparing a case against the Prime Minister, based on the leaked document. The Stop the War Coalition and Military Families Against the War said the case would be presented to the High Court in London today.
Peter Brierley, whose 29-year-old son, Shaun, died in Iraq, went further and called on Mr Blair to stand down as Prime Minister.
Rose Gentle, whose son, Gordon, was killed in Basra last year, said she and other families were preparing an indictment against Tony Blair. The case will be supported by the Stop The War Coalition and the Military Families Against The War.
The claim that the British government knew it was waging an illegal war could be considered by the International Criminal Court in the Hague which has jurisdiction to hear allegations of war crimes.
If the British military was deliberately targeting Iraqi buildings or individuals to achieve regime change it might be possible to show that the government had breached international criminal law. "It is clear that the weapons, such as cluster bombs, were not used to rid Iraq of WMD but for other political purposes and therefore were disproportionate to the military objective," Mr Shiner added.
Such implications underline why British military chiefs of staff were so insistent that the advice given by the Attorney General should be unequivocal before they committed troops to the region.
It now looks like that these assurances were based on much more ambiguous advice than they had been led to believe.
The publication of the advice could also trigger successful appeals on behalf of war protesters in this country who have argued that offences of public disorder and criminal damage were only committed to stop a greater crime, namely an illegal war with Iraq.
A spokesman for the Stop The War Coalition said: "There were no weapons of mass destruction, no 45- minute warning, and now we know, there was no proper legal advice for war. Tony Blair has to take responsibility for what happened in Iraq and for the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis and 88 British servicemen."
Mrs Gentle, who is standing against Adam Ingram, a Defence minister, in the parliamentary constituency of East Kilbride, said: "We now know that the war was based on a lie. There was no legal advice in favour of the war. My son died for that lie and I am determined to see justice done."
She added: "If Tony Blair had a shred of decency he would resign tonight. He is a disgrace to his party and to his country."