Cairo: Health authorities in the Jizan region in southern Saudi Arabia have ordered an interrogation of personnel at a local medical centre over a video circulated on social media showing a dance performance inside the privately owned facility, Saudi media reported.
The viral video shows a four-member folk dance troupe performing for patients at the hospital, an act that triggered an outcry and accusations of disturbing patients. A man wearing a hospital uniform is seen filming the performance with a mobile phone.
The Jizan health directorate has formed an urgent committee to investigate employees at the hospital, Saudi news portal Ajel said.
The portal quoted unidentified sources as saying that head of the Jizan health directorate Abdul Rahman Al Harbi has directed an immediate investigation with the employees involved in the incident and take the necessary measures.
A report about the findings of the inquiry will be presented to the health authorities in Jizan.
According to Ajel, the local health directorate will apply penalties to the hospital in question for having recruited the service of a folk troupe whose performance caused inconvenience to patients and violated their privacy.
The violating facility is a haemodialysis centre, the sources said.
It was not immediately clear the penalties that could be meted out for people involved in the incident.
However, inviolability of private life is protected under Saudi law.
The kingdom’s public prosecution has warned that infringing private life is among information crimes that warrant arrest
Saudi authorities have vowed penalties against using mobile phones for violating people’s privacy.
Anyone found guilty of misusing mobile phones to violate others’ privacy could face a fine of SR500,000 and a jail term of one year.
