A SRI LANKAN doctor who admitted aiding the Tamil Tigers terror group has said his personal feelings never affected patients.
Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy, who once lived in Nottingham, spent four years in a US prison after he was arrested on suspicion of helping the banned organisation – known for its use of suicide bombers and child soldiers.
He admitted the offence and now, after his release, wants to resume seeing patients at the practice he runs with his wife in Enfield, London.
The doctor told a disciplinary hearing in Manchester: "I served my patients without any reservations, or without any influences, other than the patients' needs.
"That is the aim of my practice and will continue to be my aim. My personal feelings have never affected my practice."
The General Medical Council says his fitness to practice is impaired because of the conviction and that his involvement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had "stepped wildly beyond any reasonable boundary".
The hearing was told Dr Vinayagamoorthy was detained after a taped conversation with undercover US agents.
It was alleged he tried to bribe them into removing the LTTE from the country's list of designated foreign terrorist organisations.
Charles Garside QC, for the GMC, said: "My fundamental submission is that a doctor who so far departs from moral and ethical standards as to actively support a terrorist organisation is impaired."
Dr Vinayagamoorthy, 62, denied being a member of the Tamil Tigers and said he did not support them either.
He said he did not knowingly break the law and during his prosecution claimed there was no evidence against him but he took the offer of a "global" plea so that co-defendants would not have to go to trial.
Among them was Sri Lankan Prathapeen who lived with him and his wife in Nottingham from 1994 while he studied for an electronics degree.
The lodger was said to be senior procurement agent for the LTTE, involved in the purchase of improvised explosive devices, missiles and machine guns from around the world.
The doctor said he was unaware of his lodger's involvement with the terror group.
He is suspended from practising at the surgery he shares with his wife.
