(ANSA) - ROME, 02 JAN - Over 230,000 signatures have been collected by a petition on Change.org to remove the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair from the title of Knight of the Order of the Garter, the highest degree of knighthood in the United Kingdom.
The British media reported it.
The petition's initiator, Angus Scott accused Blairdi of war crimes "in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 68-year-old former prime minister was fiercely challenged for taking Britain to war in 2003 alongside George Bush's United States against Saddam Hussein's regime. In 2016, the 2016 Chilcot investigation established that the mission in Iraq began on the basis of intelligence information "presented with unjustified certainty" and before diplomatic options were exhausted. Many mothers of British soldiers who died in wars protested the recognition. Carol Valentine told the Mirror that knighthood in Blair is "the ultimate offense" after her son Simon was killed while on a mission to Afghanistan in 2009. Hazel Hunt,Another mother of a dead soldier in Afghanistan said she was considering returning the Elizabeth Cross in protest. Caroline Whitaker, whose son Gareth was killed by an Afghan police officer in 2012, said she felt teased.
There was also a strong reaction on Twitter where there are those who ask that Blairsia be taken to the Hague tribunal for international crimes.
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