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Ala Bashir may be one of Iraq's most celebrated artists, but for over 20 years he was also the personal plastic surgeon to the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein.

His paintings have been shown in galleries across the globe from New York to Moscow, and are now showing in his adopted country of Great Britain.

However, Dr Bashir's other job as plastic surgeon brought him into close contact not only with the dictator Saddam Hussein, but also with members of his family.

He honed his skills treating victims of the Iran-Iraq war, and says he was the first surgeon in the Middle East to successfully sew back a severed hand.

But he says that it was due to his artistic talents as a painter that Saddam picked him to be his doctor from a number of potential candidates.

Matthew Bannister spoke to Dr Bashir about his extraordinary work and asked him to describe how he felt when the President told him he'd been chosen for the job.

is being shown at the University of Leicester in England