19th June, 2012 –
The Bahraini courts announced last week that nine of the doctors previously accused of occupying Salmaniya Medical Complex during the February 2011 unrest were found innocent, whereas the verdicts of nine other medics were downgraded.
The issue has sparked controversy in the Bahraini society since unfortunately many loyalist Bahrainis believe that all the medics are accountable for what happened in Salmaniya.
It is unrealistic to blame all the doctors and nurses for all that happened in the hospital, we have to believe in our judicial system, many of these medics were found innocent and hence we should not hold them accountable for the mishaps that took place. The others who were found to be responsible had sentences starting from a month up to fifteen years in prison.
We have to start looking deeper at the fact that many of these medics who were found innocent might have been only involved in protests and not in occupying the medical complex, it is certainly unacceptable and unprofessional to leave your work as a doctor during the time of crisis and lead protests in a public hospital’s parking lots, but this also falls within freedom of expression, provided by the Constitution of our Kingdom as long as people are acting peacefully and not harming others.
Many see these doctors as people who have broken their sacred oath of treating patients; abandoning those in their care to engage in politics and speak to media channels.
On the other hand there are those within the opposition who believe that all the medics should be released and none of them should be held accountable for anything that occurred in Salmaniya. Many medics were responsible for the chaos caused in Salmaniya, depriving other citizens from entering hospital premises, holding illegal rallies in front of the hospital’s emergency entrance, disregarding their patients while being engaged in anti-government protests and many more. We cannot deny that some of these medics should be held accountable for many violations and the fact that they are medics does not give them the privilege to violate the law and get away with it.
Many have also raised questions about the credibility of the judicial system, questioning how these medics could have been falsely accused or falsely sentenced in the earlier court sessions. The circumstances during the weeks after 14 February were exceptional. At times it seemed as if civil order would collapse completely. So it was not surprising that the judicial sector was under tremendous strain. However, those defendants who felt that their trial was unfair were able to present an appeal and hence many of the Bahraini medics were subsequently found innocent.
Bahrainis should stop jumping into conclusions of whether all the medics are responsible for what happened in Salmaniya or not. They were accused of violating the law, some were found guilty and others were found innocent, just like in any other case taken up by the courts.
On the other hand and as stated by Prof. Bassiouni “Medics in Bahrain were not angels”, hence whoever violates the law of the country should be punished if found guilty, so let’s not glorify what many of the doctors did just because of their profession – and lets also start thinking as rational human beings that in any scenario you cannot hold everyone responsible for the mistakes of a few.