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Baha Mousa army doctor found guilty of dishonest conduct
(The Guardian) – Derek Keilloh has repeatedly denied any knowledge of injuries suffered by Iraqi hotel worker who died in British custody. A medical tribunal will on Monday consider whether a former army doctor is fit to continue to practise [as GP] after finding that he acted in a misleading and dishonest way after the death of Baha Mousa, a Basra hotel worker who died in British military custody in Iraq in 2003.
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Baha Mousa died while in British custody in Basra, Iraq in 2003 (BBC News)Derek Keilloh also failed to protect other detainees, said a panel of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) yesterday. Keilloh, who had denied any cover-up, had claimed he only saw dried blood around the nose of Mousa, who had 93 separate injuries after being arrested and beaten by soldiers.
The hotel receptionist, who had been hooded with a sandbag for 24 hours, sustained injuries including fractured ribs and a broken nose during the final 36 hours of his life in the custody of the 1st Battalion, Queen’s Lancashire Regiment. Keilloh, who now works as a GP in Mayford House surgery in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, denied any knowledge of such injuries.
The MPTS panel, sitting in Manchester, is part of the General Medical Council, the doctors’ professional regulator. It said Keilloh knew of the injuries to Mousa but failed to conduct an adequate examination of the body. He also failed to assess other detainees, protect them from further mistreatment or tell senior officers what was going on.
Keilloh, then a 28-year-old regimental medical officer, was called to a detention centre at the British Army HQ in Basra in September 2003 where Mousa, 26, was unconscious after a violent incident with soldiers. He and other medical staff apparently made every possible attempt to save Mousa’s life and there was no criticism in this regard, said the panel. But Keilloh failed to make an adequate examination of Mousa’s body when he knew the detainee had sustained injuries.
Keilloh had also failed to bring to attention of senior officers the injuries to Mousa and the possible mistreatment of two other detainees. The panel was satisfied that he should have suspected foul play.
Only once mentioned in a comment searching BooMan Tribune archive. Twice in a diary – 2 to Remember by Jim Staro and UK soldiers face War Crimes trial- how far up will it go? by Spiderleaf
Steven D covered torture of detainees in his front page story Iraq.
And this as well:
“The Defence Secretary, Des Browne, is asking the law lords to overturn rulings by the High Court and the Court of Appeal that there should be an investigation into the death in 2003 of Baha Mousa, 26, a hotel receptionist who was allegedly tortured at a British military prison in Basra.
Mr Mousa was among a group of detainees arrested following a counter-insurgency operation. A court was later told that 93 injuries were found on his body.”
