Wouter Basson’s lawyer, Jaap Cilliers, said that his client "wouldn’t have been a doctor by now" had he not brought the application.

Wouter Basson and his legal team walked out of his sentencing hearing to file an urgent interdict at the high court in Pretoria.

Condemnation of Syria has increased after it issued a veiled threat to use chemical or biological weapons if it was attacked by outside forces.

Experts met in Geneva on Monday to consider ways of stopping scientific advances being converted into more lethal biological weapons.