Bahraini Authorities to Prosecute 50 Doctors for Treating Protesters!

Local Editor

Up to 50 doctors and nurses who treated anti-government protesters injured during the recent demonstrations in Bahrain were charged yesterday with acts against the state, said The Independent on Wednesday.

It added that in an escalation of the government crackdown on the protests, the medical staff was accused of "promoting efforts to bring down the government" and "harming the public by spreading false news".

Some were also accused of causing the deaths of two demonstrators by "inflicting additional wounds" on them or of giving them "unneeded treatments."
In all 23 doctors and 24 nurses were charged and will be tried in a military court, the Justice Minister Khaled bin Ali Al Khalifa said. "The medical profession was strongly abused during this period," he said.

Medical organizations expressed outrage at the legal assault on the profession with health staff seized from their homes and hospitals taken over by the military. Under the Geneva Convention people wounded in conflict are guaranteed the right to medical care, regardless of which side they are on.

Richard Sollom, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, who led an investigation in the country last month, according to the paper said: "Our findings suggest the doctors and other staff provided ethical and life-saving care to protesters who were shot at and injured by the security forces. These are trumped up charges. I don't believe the government has the basis for them."

Dr Sollom said he tried to visit Salmaniya Medical Centre (SMC), the country's largest hospital, but had been detained at the entrance. "The hospital is completely militarized with soldiers in masks carrying assault rifles on every floor. This is a wealthy sophisticated country with exquisite health care that has been completely militarized."