For Immediate Release: 
October 6, 2015

Contact: 410-983-6895, [email protected]

Dr. Margaret Flowers - seeking the Green Party nomination for United States Senate from Maryland - was arrested this morning while attending a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing at the U.S. Capitol.

She was at the Capitol to demand an independent investigation of the U.S. bombing of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan that killed at least 20 patients and wounded dozens of others.

Dr. Flowers spoke to media before the hearing began. She began to leave the hearing before it was called to order but was ordered arrested by committee chair Senator John McCain before the gavel struck to call the meeting to order. Approximately a dozen individuals from Code Pink and other groups were present. Dr. Flowers was the only person arrested.

"Bombing hospitals is a war crime," said Flowers. Hospitals are generally immune from attack under the Geneva Convention. In 2014 the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution reaffirming that hospitals and medical facilities should not be attacked during war.

After her arrest Dr. Flowers was told she would be given a citation and released to return for a court hearing at a later date.