Friday, March 1, 2013

"Complicit in acts of torture": Saddam doctor suspended but will be back working in NHS in a year

The panel heard evidence the doctor knew that some prisoners he treated had been tortured, and it was likely that they would be tortured again


The doc: Dr Mohammed Kassim Al-Byati worked for Saddam
doctor who was an “accessory to torture” in Saddam Hussein’s regime has been suspended – but will be back in our hospitals in a year.
Mohammed Al-Byati, 47, has been in the UK since 2000 and has treated thousands in the NHS, but he carried out medical procedures on brutalised detainees at camps in Iraq between 1992 and 1994.
A fitness to practise tribunal ruled today he knew it was likely prisoners would be tortured again, making him “complicit”.
Suspending him from the medical register for the maximum 12 months, panel chairman Professor Michael Whitehouse, said: “It has been noted Dr Al-Byati’s actions were a consequence of compulsory military service in the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
“He was a junior doctor whose behaviour was being controlled by a dictatorial regime which used extremely grave violations of rights to control the population.”
But he added: “Even though his involvement was outside his control, such conduct is unacceptable.”
Dr Al-Byati denied the charges and said he had been “terrified” of what would happen to him.
He said he did not know his patients had been tortured and the panel accepted he did not wish for them to be harmed.
Saddam Hussein in Iraq

But Charles Garside QC, prosecuting on behalf of the General Medical Council, claimed the doctor, a Sunni Muslim, was part of a “well known family” which supported the Saddam regime.
Mr Garside said he knew his place of work at the Iraqi Intelligence Agency compound was a place where “horrific atrocities were committed” against Shia Muslims and Kurds.
He added Dr Al-Byati, who is married with three children, made an application to claim asylum in February 2007, which is when he admitted his work in Iraq.
Dr Al-Byati, who is now entitled to appeal and has held various posts, told the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester he was “hurt” by the claims.
But campaigners hit out tonight.
Jabbar Hasan, of the Iraqi Association, which helps torture victims settle in Britain, called the decision to let the doctor return “outrageous”.
He said: “Some of the people we have helped to begin a new life in the UK are proud to work in the NHS.
“They would be dismayed to learn a man found guilty of being complicit in torture is allowed to work alongside them.

No comments:

Post a Comment