Region | Egypt
Egypt bans medical professionals from working in Saudi Arabia
Egypt said it would not allow medical professionals to go to Saudi Arabia for work in an apparent bid to pressure the Saudi authorities to release two Egyptian physicians punished by jailing and flogging.
- By Ramadan Al Sherbin, Correspondent
- Published: 23:49 November 13, 2008
- Egyptian doctors and activists comfort Ameen Al Arabi, father of Dr Raouf Al Arabi who was sentenced by a Saudi court, during a protest in Cairo on Thursday.
- Image Credit: AP
Cairo: Egypt said it would not allow medical professionals to go to Saudi Arabia for work in an apparent bid to pressure the Saudi authorities to release two Egyptian physicians punished by jailing and flogging.
The Egyptian Ministry of Manpower said in a statement that it would not approve Saudi contracts to hire Egyptian doctors "until further notice".
Last month a Saudi Islamic court sentenced Egyptian doctors Raouf Al Arabi and Shawki Abd Rabuh to 15 years in prison and 1,500 lashes each for causing the wife of a Saudi prince to get addicted to the painkiller morphine during medical treatment.
The sentencing has drawn angry reaction from Egypt's human rights groups and media, who have accused the Saudi authorities of unfairly treating Egyptians working there.
Unacceptable
Protesting the punishment, relatives of the two convicts and rights advocates on Wednesday gathered outside the Press Syndicate in Cairo raising placards reading: "The 1,500 lash judgment is unprecedented in Islamic history".
"What happens to my son is unacceptable," said the mother of Dr Al Arabi, who joined the protesters. "Even if he were an animal, he would not be punished by 1,500 lashes," she added.
The Saudi embassy in Cairo said in a statement that the sentencing against the two physicians is mild and that "the Saudi judicial system has delivered its ruling".
As protesters urged President Hosni Mubarak to intervene to free the two doctors, officials at the Egyptian foreign ministry said the case is being followed "at the highest level".
"Foreign Minister Ahmad Abdul Gait has instructed the Egyptian Ambassador in Saudi Arabia to exert strenuous effort at all levels to ensure a solution to this problem either by getting the sentencing commuted or having the two doctors pardoned," Ahmad Rezq, an aide to Abdul Gait, said this week.
"Contacts are under way between Cairo and Riyadh in view of their distinguished relations." More than one million Egyptians are working in Saudi Arabia. Both countries have generally good political and economic ties.
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