London, Aug 03: British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon is under pressure after claims that officials in his department had attempted to destroy evidence in connection with the death of Dr. David Kelly. The security guards at the MoD called the police when they found a memo relating to media coverage of the Kelly case in a pile of classified rubbish that was due to be incinerated. The MoD, however, insisted that the document was not significant and the information had been leaked in an attempt to undermine the minister, who will have to give evidence to Lord Hutton`s inquiry. The inquiry is due to start on August 11.
"It was nothing more than a security breach. The police were called in but are not taking it any further. The document was part of confidential waste that was left out by mistake. There is nothing in the disposal of this document that is significant or suspicious," an MoD spokesman said.
An official said, "Our guards wouldn`t have necessarily recognised what the papers were." But one security source said, "This is a deliberate attempt to target Hoon."
A central plank of the investigation will determine exactly who was responsible for making Kelly`s name public, which led to his interrogation by a House of Commons select committee and his subsequent suicide.

Hoon denies any knowledge of the plans, whereby Kelly`s name was confirmed by the MoD press office. But his own officials have already had to contradict claims that he had never spoken to the biological weapons expert.
A defence official confirmed that the papers had been left out and were part of a security breach, but also added that they were briefing papers predicting subjects that were likely to come up in the following week`s news, rather than instructions on how to handle coverage of Kelly`s death.
Bureau Report