MSPs back law to try Blair

The motion tabled by Independent MSP Margo MacDonald called for an amendment to the International Criminal Court (Scotland) Act 2001 making the waging of aggressive war with the intention of regime change illegal "so that Tony Blair could be brought to trial in Scotland."

The proposal gained support from SNP backbenchers Annabelle Ewing, Gordon MacDonald, John Finnie, Chic Brodie and Jim Eadie.

Ms MacDonald, a former SNP deputy leader, said Scotland had an opportunity to incorporate international criminal law into Scots law which has until now been distinct.

Her husband Jim Sillars called on "Alex Salmond's government or a bold backbencher" to "introduce retrospective legislation to indict the former prime minister on war crimes."

Mr Sillars said: "We have to ask if it can ever be right that a leader who paved the way to aggressive war through lies, distortions and manipulation should go unpunished while the victims of that war are either lying destroyed in their many thousands, or are living with the terrible consequences of it?"

"Blair knew aggressive war was a crime. He believed he was safe, there being no legal system that could touch him. There is one now - ours," he added.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu called last week for Mr Blair and former US president George W Bush to be tried at the International Court of Justice in The Hague for their role in the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The Nobel Peace prize winner said that had Mr Blair and Mr Bush been former African leaders they would already have faced trial. The death toll during and after the Iraq war is sufficient on its own for Mr Blair and Mr Bush to be prosecuted, he said.