Basson inquiry delayed again
2012-12-06 16:01
Pretoria - Illness has again put a spoke in the wheels of
Cape Town cardiologist Wouter Basson's ethical conduct hearing.
Basson's hearing on charges of unethical conduct before a
professional conduct committee of the Health Professions Council was supposed
to resume on Thursday.
The charges stem from his involvement in the apartheid
government's chemical and biological warfare programme in the 1980s and early
1990s.
Basson's legal representative Jaap Cilliers SC applied
for a postponement until April because two of Basson's witnesses were not
available due to illness.
Toxicologist Prof Gert Muller of Stellenbosch University
was to have given evidence on Thursday, but had a heart attack a few weeks ago.
Cilliers handed in a medical certificate from Muller's
cardiologist that he was not allowed to travel by air and would not be able to
testify.
Former surgeon general Dr Niel Knobel, who was to have
resumed his evidence, was still recuperating from open-heart surgery earlier
this year.
The hearing was delayed in September when the legal
assessor, retired judge president Prof Frikkie Eloff, 80, was admitted to
hospital with pneumonia.
Eloff was back at
the hearing on Thursday.
Basson was not present for the postponement.
Pro forma prosecutor Salie Joubert said it was expected
that evidence in the hearing would be concluded within a week.
Final argument in the hearing will only be presented in
July next year.
Basson is accused of acting unethically by being involved
in the large-scale production of Mandrax, cocaine and tear-gas, of weaponising
teargas and of supplying it to Unita leader Jonas Savimbi.
He is also accused of acting unethically by providing
disorientating substances for cross-border kidnappings and making cyanide capsules
available for distribution to operatives for use in committing suicide.
US medical ethics expert Prof Steven Miles previously
testified that Basson had violated the laws of humanity and various World
Medical Association declarations and regulations.
In contrast, Knobel said Basson had been a soldier and
not a doctor when he headed the chemical and biological warfare programme.
Knobel also disagreed with Miles' view that once you were
a doctor, you remained a doctor and that Basson had made use of his medical
knowledge and skills when he headed the programme.
It was Basson's case that the surgeon general at the time
had been in overall charge of the programme and that he had only carried out
orders as a soldier.
- SAPA
