Two years ago, Lib Dem MP Norman Baker, in an article published here on Lib Dem Voice, asserted that the questions arising from the death of UN weapons inspector David Kelly – the BBC’s source for the allegations that the Government ‘sexed-up’ its WMD dossier in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq – would not go away because

… the conclusion that the government weapons inspector took his own life cannot be supported by the facts. … The key question was this: why was Dr Kelly’s such a strange death? Nobody would commit suicide that way, but nor can murder be explained by what was found. The only answer that makes sense is that he was murdered by other means, and then steps taken to make the death look like suicide. For reasons I give in the book, I believe he was murdered by Iraqi elements, the police were too late to stop this, and a decision was taken for political reasons to alter the truth.

What is certain is that the conclusions of the Hutton Inquiry are an insult to the intelligence of the British people, and because of this, this is unfinished business. It will remain so until we have a proper inquest into the death of Dr Kelly, and a proper full-scale public inquiry into the disastrous and dishonest decision by the Blair Government to take us into an illegal war in Iraq.

The Telegraph this weekend reports:

Six senior doctors have begun legal action to force a new inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly, the scientist who died days after being exposed as the source of a controversial BBC story on the Iraq war. The action is being taken because six doctors are convinced that the original verdict of suicide is unsafe and should be overturned. …

in a 13-page dossier prepared as the basis for the legal action, the doctors argue that the bleeding from Dr Kelly’s ulnar artery in his left wrist is “highly unlikely” to have caused his death. They say a number of studies have shown that it is unusual for a patient to die from a single deep cut to the wrist.

The revelation of the move for a new inquest is embarrassing for the Government, particularly as it comes just two weeks into the inquiry chaired by Sir John Chilcot which is examining Britain’s role in the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath.

The doctors are applying to the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland for permission to go to the High Court for a new inquest, or the resumption of the previous inquest.