London, Sept 25: British Government deceit over the suicide of Government weapons expert David Kelly, particularly the `hypocrisy` of Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon must be revealed, the inquiry into his death heard today. The Kelly family`s lawyer, Jeremy Gompertz, summing up his argument on the final full day of the inquiry, launched a stinging attack on the Government for alleged `cynical abuse of power`. Kelly, 59, was found dead in July, days after being named by the Ministry of Defence as the suspected source of a BBC report that said the Government had `sexed up` a controversial dossier on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. The Kelly family`s "primary aims are, one, that the Government`s duplicity in the handling of Dr Kelly should be exposed and, two, that the systematic failings of the MOD (Defence Ministry) should be identified," Gompertz said. BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan had claimed in a radio report in May that Prime Minister Tony Blair`s office had embellished intelligence in a dossier published in September 2002 in a bid to bolster the case for war.
"If, as the family submit, there was a strategy to to use Dr. Kelly as a witness to undermine Andrew Gilligan in furtherance of the Government`s dispute with the BBC, this was a cynical abuse of power and deserves the strongest possible condemnation," Gompertz said.
Gompertz said the Kelly family felt "deeply hurt and angered" after Ministry Of Defence Personnel Director Richard Hatfield had delivered to the inquiry in his evidence "an arrogant dismissal of Dr Kelly as the author of his own misfortune".
Bureau report