LONDON, July 28: An independent judicial inquiry into the death of David Kelly, the man at the centre of a furore over the way Britain went to war against Iraq, is to begin on Friday (Aug 1), the government announced on Monday.

Lord Brian Hutton will hold a preliminary hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, at which he will set out how he intends to conduct his inquiry and hear applications from interested parties.

It will then be adjourned until after Kelly’s funeral, which “will not take place for some time,” the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Lord Hutton, a former chief justice in Northern Ireland, decided to go ahead with a preliminary hearing after meeting Kelly’s widow on Saturday at her home in Oxfordshire.—AFP