Derrick Pounder

Summary

Scottish forensic pathologist asked by the family of Ibrahim al-Mtour, via Al-Haq, to conduct a second autopsy after the detainee’s death in Israeli detention (Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, PDF p.138).

He held that a named prison doctor had committed “prima facie, a serious breach of medical ethics” by following an order from the commander of Dhahiriyya Military Detention Center to administer an injection of tranquilizers to a detainee bound hand and foot “in an otherwise empty cell” where the commander had used tear gas on him (PDF p.138-139).
Invoking the UN Principles of Medical Ethics (1982) and the Declaration of Tokyo of the World Medical Association (1975), he recommended “all the case information should be forwarded to the appropriate Israeli Medical Authorities with a view to initiating disciplinary proceedings” against the doctor, noting a suspicion that unethical practice by prison doctors was “a widespread problem” (PDF p.139).
He directed his recommendations to Amnesty International, Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights, the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, and the Copenhagen-based Committee of Concerned Forensic Scientists; PHR and AAAS had sponsored his visit (PDF p.139).
He concluded “the cause of death was asphyxiation due to ligature pressure on the neck” and that “more likely than not the mechanism of death was hanging”, the decedent having for three days been subjected to treatment “prima facie, cruel, inhuman and degrading”; the death was possibly an “aggravated suicide”, homicide could not be excluded, and “the initial investigation of the death to have been inadequate” (PDF p.140).

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aliases