NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear has called for "less prevarication and more action" after the Government admitted it had not taken any action to prosecute soldiers responsible for the death of NUJ member Terry Lloyd in Iraq in 2003.
Solicitor General Mike O'Brien, responding to a Parliamentary Question tabled by the NUJ's cross-party group of MPs said the case was "still under active review" but that the Crown Prosecution Service needed further information before it could decide on any action.
The NUJ tabled the Parliamentary Question after the coroner in the inquest into the death of Terry Lloyd wrote to Attorney General Lord Goldsmith last October "to see whether any steps can be taken to bring the perpetrators responsible for this to justice."
The inquest ruled that the 50-year-old ITN correspondent was "unlawfully killed" when a fatal bullet from American troops hit him in the head while being taken to hospital in a civilian vehicle near Basra after being injured in crossfire on 22 March 2003. Since then the NUJ has raised the case directly with the Foreign Secretary and at a meeting with the US ambassador in London. The TUC and other organisations have backed calls for UK government action.
NUJ General Secretary, Jeremy Dear said: "The coroner investigated the case, found that Terry had been unlawfully killed and wrote to the government urging further action. Yet eight months later the Government have still not taken any action to bring those who unlawfully killed Terry to justice. There needs to be less prevarication and more action, less impunity and more concern for justice".
John McDonnell Secretary of the NUJ Parliamentary Group called on the UK government to take action to bring Terry's killers to justice. "There is a moral obligation by the British Government to take this matter further," he said.
