UNITED STATED
Britain released secret medical files on Friday that poured cold water on lingering conspiracy theories that former U.N. Iraq weapons expert David Kelly may have been murdered.
Kelly, 59, was found dead in 2003 after being named as the source of a BBC report which accused then-Prime Minister Tony Blair's government of exaggerating the military threat posed by Iraq's Saddam Hussein to help build the case for war.
His death caused one of the biggest controversies of Blair's time in office and led to fevered speculation about the circumstances surrounding his loss of life.
Judge Lord Hutton led an independent inquiry into the death and concluded in 2004 that the scientist slit his left wrist after taking painkillers in countryside near his home.
Critics called the ruling a whitewash and medical experts have since questioned whether Kelly's injuries were severe enough for him to bleed to death.
Hutton asked that Kelly's post mortem papers remain classified for 70 years to protect his family. However, the government decided to release them after only seven years.
"I am publishing these reports in the interests of maintaining public confidence in the inquiry into how Dr Kelly came by his death," said Justice Secretary Ken Clarke.
'SELF-INFLICTED INJURY'
Pathologist Nicholas Hunt, who conducted the post-mortem, said there was no evidence Kelly had been assaulted, strangled or dragged to the scene of his death in Oxfordshire.
"The orientation and arrangement of the wounds over the left wrist are typical of self-inflicted injury," he wrote. Tests showed he had taken a "significant quantity" of a painkiller containing paracetamol and dextropropoxyphene, an opioid.
A group of doctors wrote to the Times newspaper in August to argue that the wound to Kelly's wrist was "extremely unlikely" to have killed him. Hunt responded by saying the death was an "absolute classic case of self-inflicted injury."
Lawmaker Norman Baker, who investigated the death for a year, told Reuters in an interview in November 2007 that he was convinced Kelly had been murdered.
He wrote a book that claimed Kelly was killed by Iraqis close to Saddam in revenge for his work as a weapons inspector. He alleged that Britain's secret services had covered up the murder due to its political sensitivity.
Family friend and veteran BBC journalist Tom Mangold said Hutton's decision to ask that the medical papers remain secret was a "kind-hearted mistake" that had fueled empty speculation that Kelly may not have killed himself.
"The alternative is that David met his death through murder, which is so absurd that it is not really worth discussing," he told BBC radio. "There has been quite a tsunami of conspiracy theories, helped a little by Lord Hutton's judgment in deciding to protect the family from further exposure to details of David's suicide."
Hutton said in a statement the medical papers had been available to lawyers representing parties at his inquiry.
"There was no secrecy surrounding the post-mortem report," he said. "I requested, not 'ordered', that the post mortem report should not be disclosed for 70 years. I made this request solely in order to protect Dr Kelly's widow and daughters for the remainder of their lives."
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
(Reuters)
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