LONDON: A British doctor was stripped of his medical license yesterday for misconduct and dishonesty over the death of an Iraqi man who was beaten and killed while in the custody of British troops.
The latest fallout from Britain’s troubled occupation of Iraq came as defense officials confirmed they have paid £14 million to settle claims of abuse from more than 200 Iraqis.
Dr. Derek Keilloh treated Baha Mousa, a hotel clerk who died at a British base after being detained in Basra in September 2003 during a sweep for insurgents. Keilloh, then a 28-year-old captain in the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, tried unsuccessfully to revive Mousa, but denied knowledge of the scale of the man’s injuries.
A public inquiry found that Mousa had sustained 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose, in an “appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence” by British troops.
Last week the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service ruled that Keilloh knew of the injuries and failed to adequately examine Mousa’s body. It said he also failed to inform senior officers of what was going on and protect other detainees from further mistreatment.
The tribunal also ruled that Keilloh engaged in “misleading and dishonest conduct” by maintaining under oath that he had seen no injuries to Mousa’s body.
On Friday the tribunal said that even though Keilloh had not harmed Mousa — and had tried his best to save him in a “highly charged, chaotic, tense and stressful” situation — the doctor should be barred from practicing medicine for at least five years.
“The panel has identified serious breaches of good medical practice and, given the gravity and nature of the extent and context of your dishonesty, it considers that your misconduct is fundamentally incompatible with continued registration,” said Dr. Brian Alderman, a member of the tribunal.
Dr. Jim Rodger of the Medical and Dental Defense Union of Scotland — which supported Keilloh — said the doctor was “extremely disappointed” by the ruling and was considering what to do next. He has 28 days to submit an appeal.
Baha Mousa’s father, Daoud Mousa, said he wished the doctor had been banned for life.
“He did not have humanity in his heart when he was supposed to be caring for my son,” Daoud Mousa said. “He did not do his job properly.”
The death of Mousa and mistreatment of other detainees blighted Britain’s six-year deployment in southern Iraq, which ended in 2009.
Britain’s defense authorities eventually apologized for the mistreatment of Mousa and nine other Iraqis and paid a 3-million-pound ($4.9-million) settlement. Six soldiers were cleared of wrongdoing at a court martial, while another pleaded guilty and served a year in jail.
The Ministry of Defense said Friday that Britain has paid 14 million pounds to settle 205 damages claims since 2008, including 162 this year. A further 196 claims are being negotiated.
It said most of the 120,000 British troops who served in Iraq “conducted themselves with the highest standards of integrity and professionalism.”
UK doctor stripped of license over death of Iraqi
UK doctor stripped of license over death of Iraqi
Video shows armed men beating a Palestinian in West Bank
- The previous incident was in September and cost the business more than $600,000 as offices and facilities were damaged, he said
TEL AVIV: Dozens of masked men armed with sticks beat and injured a Palestinian in the Israeli-occupied West Bank when they attacked a plant nursery, according to people who saw the attack and video footage obtained by The Associated Press.
Video filmed by security cameras shows men dressed mostly in black, faces covered, with several hitting and kicking a man on the ground.
Two witnesses who are members of the family that owns the facility said Israeli settlers beat 67-year-old Basim Saleh Yassin as he was trying to flee the German-Palestinian-run nursery in the northern West Bank village of Deir Sharaf. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
BACKGROUND
The attack is the latest in rising Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, where assaults increased during the Palestinian olive harvest in October and have continued.
Workers fled when they saw the settlers coming on Thursday but Yassin is deaf and couldn’t hear the warnings to leave, one family member said.
The witnesses said Yassin was in the hospital with broken bones in his hand and other injuries to his face, chest and back. Four cars at the nursery were burned.
The attack is the latest in rising Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, where assaults increased during the Palestinian olive harvest in October and have continued.
Israeli authorities have done little beyond issuing occasional condemnations of the violence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the perpetrators “a handful of extremists” and urged law enforcement to pursue them for “the attempt to take the law into their own hands.”
But rights groups and Palestinians say the problem is far greater than a few bad actors, and attacks have become a daily phenomenon across the territory.
Israel’s army said it dispatched soldiers to the Shavei Shomron junction — close to the area of Thursday’s attack — following reports of dozens of masked Israelis vandalizing property.
The army said it apprehended three suspects who were taken to police for questioning. It said security forces condemn violence of any kind.
According to one of the family members who own the nursery, it was the third time in a year that the facility was attacked.
The previous incident was in September and cost the business more than $600,000 as offices and facilities were damaged, he said.
In the video of Thursday’s attack, Yassin runs from a group of masked people before falling to the ground.
One man kicks him and another hits him twice with what appears to be a stick. Yassin stays on his knees as he’s struck again and then places his hands on the ground.
As the men are leaving, one kicks him in the head while others strike him again until he’s seen lying on the pavement.
