Coroner's Inquests into the London Bombings of the 7 July 2005
- Update 21/03/11: J7 Submission Regarding Resumption of Inquests into the Four added
- Update 29/10/10: J7 publish 7/7 Inquests Transcripts as searchable, print-friendly PDFs
- Update 16/10/10: See also the dedicated J7: 7/7 Inquests Blog
J7 Submissions to the 7/7 Inquests
Lady Justice Hallett: ....I don't know if there are any unrepresented families, bereaved families, present who wish to say anything, wish to make any comments. I don't know whether there are any survivors present who wish to say anything, because I wish to emphasise, as I hoped I had in my ruling, that in ruling that there shouldn't be interested persons, I did not intend in any way to exclude them, and if they have any lines of enquiry or any questions they wish to propose, then they are always free to send their comments to Mr Smith and, indeed, if anybody is here today who wishes to say anything, I'll hear them now.
Source: Inquest Hearing Transcripts, 23 June 2010
Morning session, p80, lines 13-24
Further to the statement by Lady Justice Hallett in the morning session of 23 June 2010, J7 decided to seize the opportunity presented by Lady Justice Hallett's generous offer to accept submissions suggesting lines of inquiry to the 7 July Inquest process. The J7 submissions were sent to Martin Smith, the Solicitor to the Inquests on 23 July 2010, and subsequently to the Counsels for the bereaved and survivors. Our submissions detail suggested lines of inquiry and questions which we believe should be proposed and considered by the Coroner in the process of the Inquests into The London Bombings of 7 July 2005.
The submissions have been prepared by members of J7's research community and attempt to summarise and highlight the major inconsistencies, anomalies and unanswered questions that still exist with regard to the events of 7 July 2005.
J7 has always been concerned that a fully independent public inquiry, particularly one held outside of the constraints of the Inquiries Act 2005, was refused twice by the government. Instead of an inquiry, the bereaved, injured and general public were offered a threadbare, anonymously authored, and anomalous narrative. This is despite Tony Blair claiming that, "We will bring together all the evidence that we have and we will publish it so that people, the victims and others, can see exactly what happened". Five years on, all the information has not been brought together and published, and we, the people, do not know what precisely happened.
Over 3,200 people have signed our online petition calling on the government to release the evidence they claim to have in support of the official narrative. The government however has consistently failed to release much by way of evidence relating to 7 July 2005, with notable exceptions being when it was politically expedient to do so; two separate attempts to secure convictions against three acquaintances of the four 7/7 accused typify these cynical machinations.
Our tireless campaigning and research over the last five years, much of which has involved doggedly pursuing responses to Freedom of Information requests, has led to the accumulation of a vast body of knowledge regarding the events of 7th July 2005, contained on our People's Investigation Forum.
J7's submissions were submitted to the Inquest in the hope that avenues of inquiry and investigation will be highlighted for the Inquests to explore further and, ultimately, that the truth about the events of 7 July 2005 can be known.
PDF copies of the Provisional Index of Factual Issues, as determined by the 7 July Inquests, can be found here or here. Our responses in the form of the J7 submissions to the Inquest can be viewed and downloaded using the PDF links below.
The Deceased
1. Background / personal evidence regarding the 52 deceased; their movements on 7 July 2005 prior to the explosions.
The explosions and the immediate aftermath
2. The travel of MSK, Tanweer, Hussain and Lindsay to and within London on the morning of 7 July 2005.
3. Circumstances at each of the four scenes immediately following the explosions.
5. In respect of each of those who were not killed immediately by the explosions, what happened to them; what attention and/or treatment they received; whether there were any failings in the way that they were treated; the circumstances of their death; whether any failings in the emergency response contributed to or were causative of their death. In particular:
(a) Whether there were delays in the emergency responders reaching scenes of the explosions and if so the reasons for such delays;
Forensic issues regarding the bombs and the bodies of MSK, Tanweer, Hussain and Lindsay
7. The likely components, manner of construction and mode of operation of the explosive devices.
8. The likely involvement of MSK, Tanweer, Hussain and Lindsay in the development and assembly of the explosive devices.
Forensic issues regarding the bombs and the bodies of MSK, Tanweer, Hussain and Lindsay
9. The presence at the scenes of MSK, Tanweer, Hussain and Lindsay, and their proximity to the explosions.
10. The general nature of injuries typically caused by proximity to explosions.
11. Issues regarding particular injuries sustained by individual deceased.
The Backgrounds of MSK, Tanweer, Hussain and Lindsay
12. The lives of the four men prior to 7 July 2005 – upbringing, education, radicalisation, association, overseas travel, expression of extremist beliefs, etc.
Preventability
Provisional Index of Factual Issues 13 - 23
An archive containing all the J7 Inquests submissions can be downloaded here, or they can be viewed here on Scribd.
Notes for Editors
- J7: The July 7th Truth Campaign was established shortly after the events of 7th July 2005, when it transpired that the unfolding story was giving rise to more questions than answers.
- J7's ongoing research efforts have twice forced the government to amend the official Home Office narrative which, on one occasion, required the then Home Secretary, Dr John Reid, to stand before parliament and announce a major factual inacurracy to the house.
- J7 do not accept that the Inquests into 52 of the 56 deaths should stand in place of Inquests into the four men accused of perpetrating the events of 7/7.
- J7 are dismayed that the families of the accused have been refused the legal aid that would have allowed them to be represented at the current round of Inquests.
- J7 fully expect that the Inquests into the four accused should be opened and conducted publicly once the Inquests into the 52 have been completed.
- J7 are concerned that some witnesses called at the Inquests may have already been presented with the Metropolitan Police site reports from each of the four locations. We have requested that any witnesses called to give testimony at the Inquests are asked to state for the public record whether they have viewed and/or read the Metropolitan Police reports as it is highly unusual that witnesses called to give evidence in any case would be privy to such reports. J7 are deeply concerned about the impact and effects that having access to these reports prior to giving their testimonies will have on their recollections of events and the witness testimonies that will be given to the inquest.
- In November 2005, after repeated refusals by the government to hold an independent public inquiry into 7/7, and given the paucity of evidence presented to support the official narrative of events, J7 established its People's Investigation Forum to coordinate our ongoing research efforts and track the progress of the many Freedom of Information requests we have issued in order to try and uncover the truth.
- Over 3,200 people have signed our petition calling on the government and police to release the evidence they claim to have. J7 supports all calls for an independent public inquiry, and are the only organisation calling for a public inquiry who specifically stipulate that any inquiry should be held outside of the remit of the Inquiries Act 2005 that subjects all public inquiries to full government control.
- The fruits of J7's research, along with articles by respected writers and academics are published on our main web site at www.julyseventh.co.uk.
