Blair 'grateful' to Hutton

2004-01-28 17:07

London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday that he accepted "in full" a judicial report which exonerated him of any wrongdoing in the suicide last year of weapons expert David Kelly.

Blair told the House of Commons that he was "extremely grateful" to Brian Hutton, the senior judge who published the report of his inquiry into Kelly's death about an hour earlier.

"The report itself is an extraordinarily thorough, detailed and clear document. It leaves no room for doubt or interpretation. We accept it in full," Blair said to cheers from members of his Labour Party.

Kelly killed himself in July after he was identified as the source of a report by the BBC's defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan, alleging that the government had exaggerated the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Blair challenged the BBC to withdraw its allegation saying: "If true it would have meant that I had misled this House."

The allegations had been shown to be "completely untrue," Blair said, but "the BBC has never clearly and visibly withdrawn this allegation. This has allowed others to say repeatedly I lied and misled Parliament".

In his report, Hutton said Blair was "directly involved" in talks that led to the naming of Kelly, but he added that he was "satisfied that no one realised or should have realised" that Kelly was under such strain that he might kill himself.

In contrast, Hutton was critical of the British Broadcasting Corporation, saying not only that Gilligan's report was unfounded, but also that the system for senior editors to check it was "defective".

- AFP