LONDON, Dec 13 – Lawyers for the overthrown Iraqi leadership have asked England\’s attorney general for consent to prosecute Tony Blair, claiming a new interview revealed offences contrary to the Geneva Conventions.
Giovanni di Stefano, representing former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, wrote to the British government\’s chief legal adviser on Saturday with a "request for consent to prosecute" former British prime minister Blair, according to the letter seen by AFP.
Di Stefano\’s Studio Legale Internazionale law firm represented Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who was deposed by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Britain, under Blair, backed the invasion.
In comments released from a BBC television interview due out Sunday, Blair said he would have backed the invasion of Iraq even if he knew that it had no weapons of mass destruction, the main justification at the time.
"In summary the allegation against… Blair involves a violation of offences within the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 which without doubt and by his own admission can only but be deemed \’not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly\’," said di Stefano\’s letter, quoting the conventions.
Aziz "is but one in millions affected by the actions (taken by) Blair and others… whom we seek your leave to issue proceedings (against) as per above forthwith."
The attorney general\’s office was not immediately available for comment.
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