Coroner says hearings into deaths of bombers and victims will be heard separately
Adam Gabbatt and agencies
The inquests of the 7 July suicide bombers will investigate the role of MI5 and police prior to the 2005 terrorist attacks, a coroner, Lady Justice Hallett, said today.
Hallett told the Royal Courts of Justice in central London that the hearings into the deaths of the four bombers would not be heard at the same time as their 52 victims.
However some survivors of the blasts were disappointed when the coroner refused their request to be able to cross-examine witnesses.
Hallett had been asked to decide what form the inquests would take ahead of the hearings later this year.
Last month counsel for the Security Service and the home secretary said disclosing MI5 files about the four suicide bombers to the families of those killed in the London attacks would be "impossible". MI5 argued that investigating claims that it could have prevented the atrocities would involve "handing over the keys" to MI5's Thames House headquarters.
At this morning's hearing, Hallett admitted there was "some force" in the security service's argument that the sensitivity of evidence given about its intelligence should restrict the inquest. However the coroner said she wanted to "conduct such investigations as are possible", adding that MI5 had offered its full co-operation.
"The scope of the inquest into the 52 deaths will include the alleged intelligence failings and the immediate aftermath of the bombings," Hallett said.
"To my mind it is not too remote to investigate what was known in the year or two before the alleged bombings. Plots of this kind are not developed overnight". >>>
