THE Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) yesterday struck off the medical register former British Army doctor Dr Derek Keilloh after his misconduct over the death of Iraqi detainee Baha Mousa in 2003.
He will not be allowed to practice as a doctor for at least five years and will be required to prove to the MPTS that he is fit to resume practice before being restored.
Speaking following confirmation of the Panel’s findings, Baha Mousa’s father, Colonel Daoud Mousa, stated: ‘I wanted the doctor to be banned for life.
‘He did not have humanity in his heart when he was supposed to be caring for my son. He did not do his job properly.’
Keilloh was a medical officer with the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment in Basra when Mousa, a hotel receptionist, died in British Army custody.
He had suffered 93 injuries, a five-day MPTS hearing was told. The MPTS ruled Keilloh was aware of the injuries but failed to report them.
He supervised a failed resuscitation attempt to save the life of Mousa, who had been hooded, handcuffed and severely beaten by soldiers.
Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), representing Colonel Daoud Mousa, lodged a complaint with the GMC in 2007 on his behalf.
The complaint alleged that Dr Keilloh had failed in his professional capacity to offer adequate levels of care and protection to Baha Mousa and other Iraqi civilians detained at Battle Group Main, the main base of the 1st Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (1QLR) during the UK’s occupation of south east Iraq.
PIL notes that all of its hundreds of other Iraqi cases involving torture and ill-treatment in UK detention also involve doctors failing in basic medical standards.
Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers said: ‘Baha Mousa died with appalling injuries to his face and body. Dr Keilloh saw these injuries and failed to take any action to safeguard the other detainees or report what he had seen.
‘The medical profession is well rid of such a man. All those UK doctors in Iraq who also saw signs of ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees but took no action had best start to instruct lawyers.’
It has also emerged that the Ministry of Defence has paid out £14m in compensation and costs to hundreds of Iraqis who complained that they were illegally detained and tortured by British forces during the five-year occupation of their country.
The MoD says it is investigating every allegation of abuse that has been made.
But human rights groups and lawyers representing former prisoners say that the abuse was systemic, with military interrogators and guards responsible for the mistreatment acting in accordance with both their training in the UK and orders issued in Iraq.
Payments totalling £8.3m have been made to 162 Iraqis this year. There were payments to 17 individuals last year and 26 in the three years before that.
Lawyers representing former prisoners of the British military say that more than 700 further individuals are likely to make claims next year.
