Iraq families reach their £150k target to take Blair to court

THE campaign to haul Tony Blair to court over the Iraq War has achieved its £1 0,000 fundraising target in just two weeks, with the help of generous Daily Mail readers.

Relatives of troops killed following the 2003 invasion said they were ‘delighted and amazed’ at the speed of the public response.

The money will pay for lawyers to go through the Chilcot Report with a fine-tooth comb to find evidence of the former prime minister committing ‘misfeasance in public office’.

The families’ legal team is looking to build a civil case against him and other Whitehall officials. Almost ,000 members of the public dipped into their pockets to help the cause, donating tenners and £20 to push up the total.

Yesterday Roger Bacon, whose son Matthew, a 34-year-old major in the Intelligence Corps, was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in 200 , said: ‘It is absolutely amazing that we have managed to get to the target so quickly. We needed £1 0,000 to do the job properly.

‘It is extraordinarily generous and we can’t thank the great British public enough.

‘It has been incredible. We launched the appeal just after

‘Can’t thank the public enough’

midnight on Tuesday two weeks ago, and by 6pm that very day we already had £ 0,000.

‘Now we have the full amount, it will allow the lawyers to get on and investigate the Chilcot report properly to see what kind of offences may have been committed by Tony Blair and others.’

The Iraq War Families Campaign Group aims to ‘bring to justice those responsible for the war and the deaths of our loved ones’.

It believes Mr Blair misled Parliament to justify the war, which cost the lives of 179 UK servicemen and women.

The Chilcot Report blasted the former PM for rushing into war on the basis of flawed intelligence and amid questions over its legality. But Sir John said only a court could decide if Mr Blair had acted illegally.

The UK authorities will not bring a criminal prosecution, and the International Criminal Court has refused to take action, so the families are pursuing a civil case.

Their lawyers, who until now have been working for free, need to undertake a ‘forensic’ analysis of the 12-volume report to determine if legal action can be taken.