Doctor ‘in cover-up’ over Iraqi beaten to death

An Army doctor who examined Baha Mousa, an innocent Iraqi beaten to death by British soldiers was accused over a cover-up as he faced medical watchdogs yesterday.

Dr Derek Keilloh, who is appearing before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, has claimed he only spotted dried blood around the nose of the hotel receptionist after he was arrested by soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (1 QLR) in a swoop against insurgents in September 2003.

Mr Mousa, 26, was hooded, handcuffed and beaten before he died 36 hours after first being taken to the detention centre at the Army HQ in the southern Iraq city of Basra.

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His body swollen and bruised, Mr Mousa, a father-of-two, suffered 93 separate injuries – including fractured ribs and a broken nose.

Now working as a family doctor in North Yorkshire, Dr Keilloh, 37, supervised a failed resuscitation attempt of the shirtless Mr Mousa in a desperate bid to save the detainee’s life.

A fellow medic, a Corporal, remarked: “Look at the state of him!” after Mr Mousa was rushed to the medical post, but the doctor – at the time a Captain and Regimental Medical Officer – denies seeing his injuries.

Rebecca Poulet QC, opening the case yesterday, said he had failed to examine Mr Mousa and did not check the condition of other detainees or notify senior officers about the “obvious” mistreatment.

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Instead, four times “under oath” in interview by military police, at courts martial and in evidence to a public inquiry, Dr Keilloh maintained he did not see the catalogue of injuries to Mr Mousa.

Mrs Poulet said: “The events span just about three days, but the doctor’s subsequent and more recent conduct is also criticised for his repeated failure to describe this incident with the openness and honesty that is expected of a doctor.”

The tribunal heard Dr Keilloh was just 28 at the time of the incident and new to his post, having been in the job with the QLR at Basra for only eight weeks.

After a “very short” handover, he took over the medical team of the battalion at their Basra HQ, a former headquarters of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party.

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Operation Salerno was launched by the QLR against Saddam loyalists in the city and on September 14 2003 Mr Mousa and other detainees were brought in for questioning.

It was practice, the tribunal heard, for detainees to be handcuffed with plastic cable cuffs and hooded with a sandbag. They were checked and none reported injuries or illness before detention.

At about 9.30pm the doctor was about to leave the medical post for the night, but was summoned immediately to the detention area.

“He was told, ‘it was an emergency. This guy has collapsed’,” Mrs Poulet said.

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The tribunal heard Ahmad Matairi, also detained in the operation, described hearing Mr Mousa shout out: “I’m going to die! Why do you do this? I do not support Saddam!”

“After that he never heard him speak,” Mrs Poulet added.

When Dr Keilloh reached the detention area he found Mr Mousa lying on his back with soldiers standing around him and was told the detainee had “fallen and collapsed”. There was no pulse and he was not breathing.

Mr Mousa was stretchered to the medical post where Dr Keilloh and his team tried for half an hour to resuscitate him before he was declared dead at 10.05pm.

At least two members of the medical team noticed the bruising and injuries to the lifeless body of Mr Mousa.

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He was “covered in bruises”, his body swollen and the injuries would be “obviously visible,” Mrs Poulet said.

“It is the case of the GMC, at least some of these injuries caused during his period in detention must have been apparent to Dr Keilloh,” Mrs Poulet said.

A subsequent £13m public inquiry into the incident strongly criticised the “corporate failure” by the Ministry of Defence and the “lack of moral courage to report abuse” within Preston-based QLR.

It named 19 soldiers who assaulted Mr Mousa and other detainees, and found that many others, including several officers, must have known what was happening.

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Dr Keilloh also faces charges from the tribunal that he failed to conduct an adequate examination of Mr Mousa’s body after death and failed to a notify a superior officer of the circumstances of the death.

He faces similar claims relating to two other injured detainees he examined after Mr Mousa’s death.

Dr Keilloh denies misconduct.

The hearing in Manchester continues.