Tony Blair is facing MPs’ demands to apply pressure on Washington to ensure that US Marines are tried in a British court for the murder of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd.
The cross-party NUJ parliamentary group is pressing the Government to respond to the ruling by the Oxfordshire coroner that the 50-year-old reporter was unlawfully killed while reporting the Iraq war.
Meetings are being sought with Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and Defence Secretary Des Browne, ministers are to be questioned in Parliament, and, unless it is ruled sub judice, other MPs will be invited to sign a Commons motion urging Government action.
“We are going to the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office to say as strongly as we possibly can that this Government needs to act to secure justice in this case,” John McDonnell, secretary of the NUJ parliamentary group said.
The MPs’ move was immediately backed by the NUJ.
Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, said: “We very much welcome the pressure they will bring to bear to secure there is justice for Terry and his family.
“We are pressing for action against the US soldiers and their commanders,”
McDonnell said.
“There is a moral obligation by the British Government to take this matter further. If we can extradite bankers to America, then we should be ensuring that these soldiers are brought before a British court which is a much more serious issue.”
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