Public backlash

The harsh sentencing of two Egyptian doctors for allegedly being the cause of a Saudi princess's addiction to painkillers has caused an outcry, reports Reem Leila

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A Saudi Arabian appeals court has doubled the sentences handed down to two Egyptian doctors, Raouf Amin and Shawqi Abd Rabu, accused of responsibility for the addiction of a Saudi princess to sedatives. Both appealed the original verdict only to have their punishment increased -- Amin to 15 years behind bars and 1,500 lashes, Abd Rabu to 20 years and the same.

Human Rights organisations are outraged. Naguib Gabriel, the doctors' lawyer and head of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights (EUHR), told Al-Ahram Weekly that the verdict is now being executed. Both doctors received the first 150 lashes last week and will receive another 150 next week.

That the appeals court handed down stiffer penalties, says Gabriel, is tantamount to penalising the plaintiffs, both of whom continue to deny the charges, for exercising their right to appeal.

"When you appeal against sentencing it is the general rule that it is either reduced or remains the same. We have presented a report to the Saudi embassy explaining the unfairness of the ruling and asking for King Abdullah to interfere."

Gabriel points out that the princess was first treated with morphine in the United States after she fell from a horse and suffered spinal injuries. Later, the Egyptian doctors were summoned to her husband's palace in Saudi Arabia to continue the treatment. Gradually the morphine dose, procured on her husband's instructions, was reduced.

"After the princess's health improved the doctors opted to come back to Egypt. Only then did they discover they were prohibited from leaving. They figured later that a Saudi doctor had been caught with the sedatives and told the authorities he was going to give them to the two doctors," says Gabriel.

The Ministry of Interior has joined human rights organisations in slamming the verdict.

"We condemn this verdict in the strongest terms and we are making contact with officials in Cairo and Saudi Arabia, as well as with President Hosni Mubarak, asking them to intervene," says Hamdi El-Sayed, head of the Doctors Syndicate.

"It does not correspond with any kind of law, any conception of human rights or even Sharia. It would have been better to have sentenced them to death than to torture them this way," insists El-Sayed, who stresses that the trials were hardly fair given that no expert medical witnesses were called.

The Doctors Syndicate in Cairo has threatened to hold demonstrations in support of the doctors and a vigil by human rights activists and the doctors' families has already been held in front of the Saudi Embassy in Cairo.

In his capacity as head of the EUHR Gabriel has already been in contact with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to publicise the case. "We have also been in contact with the Foreign Ministry, which has asked us for information and help to end the crisis," he says, noting the irony in the willingness of the government to call on human rights organisations as long as the abuses they report are outside Egypt's borders.

The case and sentence against the doctors are flawed, Gabriel argues, on several grounds. First they did not receive a fair trial which must, he insists, be stated up front. Second, the "continuous use of physical punishment is prohibited under international law and must be discontinued. Finally, it is legally wrong to double penalise anyone for only one crime."

He believes that with pressure the Saudi government will release them and let them return to Egypt "but pressure must be continuous".

The Saudi Embassy in Cairo refused to comment on the case as long as the matter was still under investigation while Ahmed Rizk, head of consular affairs at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, would say only that they "are exerting tremendous efforts to have [the two] released and returned to Egypt."