/ 26 January 2012

Hearing against Basson may be dropped

Hearing Against Basson May Be Dropped

The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) will on Friday decide if it will proceed with its hearing into allegations of unprofessional and unethical conduct levelled against germ warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson.

Basson, the former head of the apartheid-era chemical and biological warfare programme Project Coast from 1981 to 1993, on Thursday applied to have the remaining four charges of misconduct against him dropped.

The HPCSA originally charged Basson in 2007 with providing tranquilisers to aid the kidnapping of people outside South Africa, “weaponising mortars with teargas”, manufacturing drugs and tear gas on a “major scale” and providing cyanide for special troops in case they needed to commit suicide. The council dropped two of the charges in September 2011 on the grounds of a lack of evidence.

The Cape Town cardiologist, who was not present on at a hearing in Pretoria on Thursday was acquitted in April 2002 in a criminal case stemming from the same allegations, before the council brought charges of unethical conduct against him in 2007.

Basson’s legal counsel, headed by advocate Jaap Cilliers, said there is insufficient evidence to prove he acted in a manner inconsistent with the Hippocratic Oath.

“The onus lies with the pro-forma prosecution to prove Dr Basson acted unethically and they have failed to do this adequately,” Cilliers told the hearing.

Their argument hinges on discounting evidence given by ethics expert Professor Steven Miles — a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota.

Inadequate evidence
Cilliers contested Miles’ evidence to be “inadequate” as he has no background to the context in which the supposed transgressions were committed.

Accordingly, Cilliers pushed for the evidence given in 2008 by a separate ethics expert Professor Solomon Benatar.

“It is argued that the evidence given by Benatar should be preferred to that of Professor Miles, as Benatar was in the South Africa military and knows the circumstances under which the alleged infringements took place,” he said.

Although Benatar’s testimony is seen as damning for Basson as Miles’s, Benatar buckled under cross-examination by Cilliers in 2008.

After testifying, Benatar conceded that he found it “increasingly difficult” to be involved in the process.

In reply, lead prosecutor Salie Joubert argued there is substantial evidence from both Benatar and Miles to prove Basson acted in an unprofessional manner.

“It is clear Dr Basson used his advanced knowledge of medicine and physiology to work against humanity. All testimony points to facts where he was implicated in gross violations and thereby should not be discharged from this hearing,” Joubert said.

‘Traitor’
Moreover, Joubert contested that Basson had incriminated himself during testimony in his criminal trial.

“He acted as a traitor towards his own soldiers. He admitted to providing cyanide suicide capsules to SANDF personnel, who passed it on to soldiers he had no medical or psychological background to,” said Joubert.

If Basson fails in his attempt to have the charges dropped, the council will continue hearing the case.

In September 2011, Cilliers who also represented him in his criminal trial, won a small victory when some of the evidence from Basson’s criminal case was excluded from the hearing.

The judging panel ruled that an agreement reached before the first hearing in 2007 had specified which evidence from the trial could be used, and that in justifying his conclusion that Basson’s conduct had been unethical, witness Professor Steven Miles had referred to previous testimony by Basson that was not covered by the agreement.

The panel said they would ignore any evidence that had been given that had should not have been included.