Date set for start of Hutton Inquiry
The inquiry into the death of Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly will start on Friday, August 1st.
Lord Hutton has been appointed to chair the investigation into the circumstances leading up to the government scientist’s apparent suicide.
A preliminary hearing will be held at the Royal Courts of Justice in which Lord Hutton will set out how he intends to conduct the inquiry and hear applications from interested parties.
Those giving evidence to the Hutton Inquiry are expected to include Downing Street communications Chief Alastair Campbell, defence minister Geoff Hoon, the Prime Minister and BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.
The inquiry will be adjourned until after Dr Kelly’s funeral.
Lord Hutton decided to go ahead with a preliminary hearing after meeting Dr Kelly’s widow Janice at her home in Southmoor, Oxfordshire, on Saturday.
A statement from the Department for Constitutional Affairs today said the funeral was not expected to take place “for some time”.
Dr Kelly’s body was discovered in woodland near his Oxfordshire home almost two weeks ago. He appeared to have committed suicide after becoming embroiled in a row between the BBC and the government over allegations of doctoring weapons intelligence in the run up to the war in Iraq.
The weapons expert gave evidence to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in the days before he died.
After his death the BBC named him as their primary source for reports alleging that the government had “sexed up” a dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Dr Kelly denied to the committee that he had made the allegations used in the BBC’s report, though he admitted meeting with Mr Gilligan.
The preliminary meeting of the inquiry will take place at 1100 BST on Friday at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London.
Most of the inquiry’s sessions will be open to the public and media – except for those where Dr Kelly’s family are being questioned.
Transcripts of all witness evidence will be released “almost immediately.”
