WASHINGTON (WASHINGTON POST) - A Washington-area doctor was sentenced to three years in prison for slipping an abortion pill into his pregnant ex-girlfriend's drink, causing her to miscarry.
Sikander Imran, a former doctor at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, was sentenced last Friday (May 18) after his former girlfriend, Ms Brook Fiske, asked a judge for a more lenient punishment, ABC affiliate WJLA reported.
Imran was charged in June last year (2017) with premeditated killing of a foetus of another and illegally causing abortion or miscarriage. Online records show he was also charged in November with assault and altering food, drink and drugs. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to foetal homicide, The Associated Press reported.
Imran and Ms Fiske both lived in New York and had dated on and off for three years. Around the time that Imran left Rochester, New York, and moved to the Washington region for a new job, Ms Fiske found out she was pregnant. But Imran did not want to have a baby and tried to convince Ms Fiske to have an abortion, she told WROC.
In May 2017, Ms Fiske, who lives in Farmington, New York, said she went to Arlington, Virginia, to talk to Imran about raising their child. Unbeknown to her, Imran slipped a pill into her drink, she said.
"When I was drinking my tea in the evening, I got to the bottom of the cup and there was a gritty substance in there. And when I looked at it, I can tell that it was a pill that had been ground up," Ms Fiske told WROC last year.
Ms Fiske began having contractions a few hours later and was rushed to Virginia Hospital Centre in Arlington, where she lost her baby. She was 17 weeks pregnant.
Ms Fiske said Imran gave her 800mg of the pill Misoprostol, which is used to start labour, cause miscarriage and prevent stomach ulcers. A nurse at the hospital told her 200mg is enough to induce labour, Ms Fiske told WROC.
The incident, she said, left her feeling "betrayed and devastated". Imran cried that night and admitted what he had done, she said.
During Imran's sentencing hearing last Friday, his attorney argued that he is dealing with mental-health issues, according to WJLA.
The Washington Post was unable to reach Ms Fiske on Saturday, but WJLA reported that she did not want her ex-boyfriend to serve a long prison sentence.
Foetal homicide, a Class 2 felony, is punishable by up to 40 years in prison. A judge sentenced him to 20 years, with 17 years suspended.
"I think that when something tragic happens, it is really important to find a way to move forward and to use it for good," Ms Fiske said.
Online jail records show that Imran is being held at Arlington County Detention Centre.
