RICHMOND MP Rishi Sunak has presented to Parliament a petition calling for justice for a former Northallerton family doctor.
Derek Keilloh was struck off the medical register in 2012 for allegedly lying about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in 2003.
He was accused of lying and found guilty by a tribunal of misleading and dishonest conduct following the death of Iraqi prisoner Baha Mousa in Basra.
But supporters of Mr Keilloh say much of the evidence put before the tribunal was unreliable.
Iraqi witness statements to 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,
Richmond MP Rishi Sunak presented the petition in the House of Commons on Tuesday evening this week. It had been signed by more than 3,500 people, many of them former patients of Dr Keilloh at the Mayford House surgery.
Mr Sunak said he was delighted to have helped Mr Keilloh’s family by presenting the petition to the House.
“They deserve to be heard and I hope the petition leads to progress for their collective efforts to clear his name.
He added: “This 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 Mr Keilloh’s family had fought a long battle. The doctor’s case had previously been taken up by his predecessor William Hague.
His mother-in-law Judy Nicholls, of Askrigg in Wensleydale, has co-ordinated the campaign to clear his name and runs the www.justice4drkeilloh.org.uk site.
Mr Sunak has offered support to the campaign and helped the family obtain transcripts of interviews and hearings from the Ministry of Defence.
He has also made further requests to the General Medical Council and the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.