Calls for Tony Blair to face justice are finally being met as a Dubai-based lawyer has announced he is to sue the former UK Prime Minister for war crimes committed during the Iraq war.
When Chilcot reported his findings it confirmed what many of us already thought about the Iraq war: Saddam Hussein did not pose an immediate threat to Britain, and evidence of weapons of mass destruction had been presented on incredibly shaky grounds. Yet despite these damning findings Blair remained without punishment, and the victims of the Iraq war remain with out any form of justice.
But that is about to change, as Nasser Hashem, an advocate from a Dubai-Cairo-London based law firm has decided to launch legal proceedings against Blair for the illegal invasion. They intend to prosecute him through the international Criminal Court, and the British courts.
In a press release they have stated the charges will be for:
“committing War Crimes and crimes against humanity”
They added:
“will take all the necessary legal procedures before the British courts to prove the violations and crimes against humanity that have been committed against human rights in Iraq..
And:
…It is important to mention that the United Kingdom claims for human rights and world peace, at the same time violating the respect of humanity. We consider that this is contradicting and this major evidence that led to the division of Iraqis, murdering of innocent children, displacement of families and classifying the Arab countries as a source of terrorism. Consequently, we can consider that what happened in Iraq is not an invasion but it is breaching the sovereignty of state without any right for the purpose of hidden aims and accordingly the former British Prime Mister will be convicted”
If the firm successfully prosecutes Blair they will be using this as a basis with which to start a compensation claim against the UK and US governments for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iraq.
The Iraq War has been described as one of the biggest war crimes since World War 2. The invasion was a defining moment in Blair’s premiership, a war which was hugely unpopular with public, sparking the “million” march protests. But it had widespread support from MP’s across the house. However a few choice MPs objected – Jeremy Corbyn, the current Labour leader, being one of them.
Iraq has marked out the legacy of Blair, and his brand of politics. The Labour Prime Minister was more than willing to support George W Bush in the so-called ‘War on terror’, as they attempted to “spread democracy”.
The war in Iraq contained multiple human rights abuses, perhaps the most shocking being the use of depleted uranium ammunitions which have been linked to horrendous birth defects recently seen in Iraq.
Since leaving office, Blair has gone on to work on work as an advisor for investment bank JP Morgan, and other high paid similar jobs in the financial sector. But perhaps most controversially he worked as a peace envoy to the Middle East, despite the carnage and destruction he and George W Bush unleashed in Iraq.
Hashem and his legal team are expected to announce further details about their legal action against Tony Blair imminently.
