Wouter Basson

Wouter Basson (born 6 July 1950) is a South African cardiologist and former head of the country's secret chemical and biological warfare project, Project Coast, during the apartheid era. Nicknamed "Dr. Death" by the press for his alleged actions in apartheid South Africa, Basson was acquitted in 2002 of 67 charges, after having been suspended from his military post with full pay in 1999.

Among other charges, Basson was alleged to have supplied a "lethal triple cocktail of powerful muscle relaxants which were used during Operation Duel (the systematic elimination of SWAPO prisoners of war and South African Defence Force (SADF) members who posed a threat to South African covert operations). The United Nations report identifies the triple cocktail as ketamine, succinylcholine, and tubocurarine.

Much of what Basson was working on is still secret. It is known that in 1981, when he was working as a personal physician to state president P. W. Botha, the country's Surgeon-General hired Basson to work for and form 7 Medical Battalion Group, a specialist unit of the South African Military Health Service. His job was to collect information about other countries' chemical and biological warfare capabilities under the name Project Coast. After his preliminary report, Basson became the head project officer and began to work on the country's chemical and biological weapons capability. He recruited about 200 researchers from around the world and received annual funds equivalent to $10 million. In 1982, Basson is alleged to have arranged the killing of 200 SWAPO prisoners in Operation Duel.

...
Wikipedia