Region | Egypt
Quiet diplomacy under way to solve Saudi Arabia-Egypt row over doctors
The recent furore, triggered by Saudi Arabia's punishment of two Egyptian doctors by jailing and flogging, can be handled through "quiet contacts" with Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian foreign ministry has said.
- By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
- Published: 00:41 December 2, 2008
Cairo: The recent furore, triggered by Saudi Arabia's punishment of two Egyptian doctors by jailing and flogging, can be handled through "quiet contacts" with Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian foreign ministry has said.
"Egyptian-Saudi relations are excellent and will continue to be close and strong," Egyptian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Hossam Zaki said on the weekend.
"There are quiet contacts with the Saudi side through diplomatic channels in order to reach satisfactory ends to problems facing [Egyptian] citizens there."
The official was speaking after meeting with the families of the two doctors held in Saudi Arabia and local human rights groups.
A Saudi Islamic court in October sentenced Egyptian doctors Rauof 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 court also convicted them of illegally dealing in drugs and having illicit affairs with female patients.
"These accusations are false and are unfair to my husband, who has given the best years of his life to serve Saudi patients," said the wife of Al Arabi.
"I hope Egyptian authorities will act seriously and ensure his release because he cannot bear 1,500 lashes," she told Gulf News.
Zaki said both doctors were flogged only once. "I hope the suspension of the whipping will continue," he said.
Royal pardon
Families of the two doctors and rights groups have urged President Hosni Mubarak to intervene and secure a royal pardon for them.
"Saudi Arabia previously pardoned a Philippine housemaid, sentenced to jailing and flogging after intervention from its government," said Ebrahim Al Zafran, a representative of the Arab Doctors' Union in Cairo.
"Are the Egyptian doctors inferior to the Philippine maids?"
Earlier in the week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul Gait warned of the "serious consequences of sharp media handling" of the crisis and cited "quiet" contacts with the Saudi authorities.
More than one million Egyptians, including 1,500 medical professionals, work in Saudi Arabia. Both countries have generally had good political and economic ties. But with the latest crisis continuing to make local headlines, these ties are likely to suffer, according to observers.
Last month Egypt said it would not allow medical professionals to go to Saudi Arabia for work.
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