Lankan doctor who helped Tigers wants UK job back

A Sri Lankan doctor who admitted aiding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began his appeal on Tuesday to be allowed to resume work in Britain.

Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy spent almost five years in a US jail for providing material support to the LTTE.

The 62-year-old doctor was released last year and has asked Britain's General Medical Council (GMC) if he can see patients again at the clinic he runs with his wife in Enfield, North London. But at a disciplinary hearing, the GMC, which registers doctors to practise in Britain, said Vinayagamoorthy's links to the LTTE had "stepped wildly beyond any reasonable boundary." "The conviction is a conviction of a serious offence," GMC lawyer Charles Garside said on the first day of a three-day hearing in Manchester, northwest England. "The doctor practises in London, a very multi-racial city including Sinhalese and Tamil people," he said.

"A substantial number of people would feel unease at consulting a doctor who was convicted of offences in relation to terrorism." AFP