IRA BAN DOCTOR: I WANT JOB BACK
Bassalat labels watchdog move ‘discriminatory’ as cops probe into weapons claim continues
A DOCTOR banned from treating patients over alleged links to the New IRA is demanding to get back on the ward.
Dr Issam Bassalat plans to sue medical watchdogs for stopping him doing his job. The doctor, who worked at Borders General Hospital, is accused of attending a meeting alongside senior IRA members. The 64-year-old was among 10 people charged following an MI5 sting in which security services allegedly bugged two suspected meetings in County Tyrone. Bassalat, from Edinburgh, was slapped with an interim suspension following his arrest while the General Medical Council (GMC) continues its probe. Now the doctor is challenging the ban at the Court of Session – representing himself in the action this week. He told the Record: “I’m quite sure the court will quash the decision, as it was discriminatory, and I will get my licence back.
“I believe I will show the decision was legally wrong.”
Bassalat, a well known figure in Scotland’s Palestinian community, added: “After that, I plan to take legal action myself against the GMC for damages.
“That will not be about money for myself. That will be about getting justice as a doctor within the NHS, and as a person.
“The GMC committed a crime against me through this process.”
Bassalat was arrested at Heathrow Airport in August 2020 and remanded in custody at Maghaberry Prison after allegedly attending the IRA meet-up in Omagh the previous month.
The doctor went on a hunger strike after protesting over spending 14 days quarantining on arrival at the jail. Previous court hearings were told the doctor was part of a plan by those involved with the alleged New IRA meeting to source weapons.
But Bassalat’s legal representatives insist he was misled and pestered into attending by an alleged MI5 agent.
Last September, he suffered a heart attack in prison as he awaited trial. He was granted bail and is living in the capital.
In December, Bassalat walked free from Edinburgh Sheriff Court where he had been accused of a terror offence by refusing to allow police access to his mobile phone.
He had been pulled over at Edinburgh Airport in January 2020 after he landed following a holiday in Spain.
He was accused of repeatedly typing the wrong PIN code into the device while being interrogated but claimed the phone was faulty.
Prosecutors dropped their pursuit of a conviction over the matter.
Bassalat said: “My court case in Northern Ireland is still going on. I doubt in my case they will proceed to trial. We are still waiting to find out.”
He was suspended from practising on an interim basis by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in October 2020 while the GMC probes the matter.
A GMC spokesman said: “The GMC made an extension application to the Court of Session for Dr Issam Bassalat’s interim suspension to be extended, while an investigation is ongoing. The doctor contested this.
“The matter was put before the court and on June 10 Dr Bassalat’s interim suspension was extended by one month, in order to consider the parties’ submissions further.”
The GMC has committed a crime against me ISSAM BASSALAT ON HIS PLANNED LEGAL ACTION