RICHMOND MP Rishi Sunak is offering support to a family fighting to clear the name of an army doctor struck off for allegedly lying about the mistreatment of prisoners during the Iraq war.
Dr Derek Keilloh, a popular Northallerton GP, was struck off the medical register in 2012 by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) after it ruled that he lied about what he knew about beatings by British soldiers.
The MPTS said Dr Keilloh was guilty of misleading and dishonest conduct following the death of Iraqi prisoner Baha Mousa in Basra in 2003. The doctor treated Baha Mousa but claimed he did not see any signs of abuse. The tribunal ruled that he did knew the abuse was taking place and lied about it subsequently.
But his family and supporters say he has been the victim of a miscarriage of justice and are pressing for the case to be re-opened because the evidence provided to the original hearing may no longer be credible.
Iraqi witness statements put before the tribunal are said to be very similar to statements presented to the Al Sweady Inquiry into allegations of abuses by the British military in Iraq – a number of which have been declared as “wholly and entirely without merit or justification” by the former high court judge who led the inquiry,
Mr Sunak said he had been helping the family obtain transcripts of interviews and hearings from the Ministry of Defence and had made further requests to the General Medical Council and the MPTS.
Mr Sunak said: “This case is not about whether British soldiers acted improperly or not over the death of Baha Mousa. The Iraqi was badly treated by British soldiers and died in custody.
“The issue is about how Dr Keilloh was treated and whether the evidence used against him, and largely accepted unquestioningly by the tribunal, can be considered 100 per cent reliable given what we now know about some of the evidence used in attempts to hold British soldiers to account and extract compensation from the Ministry of Defence.”
Mr Sunak said Dr Keilloh’s family, supported by many of his former patients at the Mayford House surgery, had fought a long battle. The doctor’s case had previously been taken up by his predecessor William Hague.
The campaign - Justice for Dr Derek Keilloh – has a website and a petition in support of the doctor has now been signed by more than 3,000 people.