RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: Two Egyptian doctors sentenced to prison and lashes in Saudi Arabia had engaged in the illicit trade of pharmaceuticals and one had an affair with several of his female patients, the official news agency reported Sunday. Quoting a statement from the health department in the city of Mecca, the Saudi Press Agency said the two doctors have confessed to the crimes. The department said it issued the statement, released a year after the sentencing, for clarity. It appeared to come in response to angry criticism of Saudi Arabia in the Egyptian press in recent weeks after news of the sentencing became public. Egyptian human rights groups have demanded that President Hosni Mubarak, who maintains close ties with the Saudi royal family, intervene to free the doctors. The Saudi media, which is government-guided, as well as government officials only recently broke their silence over the case. One of the doctors, Raouf Amin, was accused of driving a Saudi princess to addiction. He initially was sentenced to seven years in prison and 700 lashes, but when he appealed two months ago, the judge not only upheld the conviction, but more than doubled the penalty to 15 years in prison and 1,500 lashes. The health department statement made no mention of the princess but said Amin gave injections of a certain drug to a woman over a period of five years. It identified the woman as the wife of the doctor s sponsor. Expatriates need Saudi sponsors - government agencies, influential businessmen or members of the royal family - to be able to work in the kingdom. The other doctor, Shawki Ibrahim, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and an unspecified number of lashes, according to Sunday s statement. (Ibrahim) traded in pharmaceuticals and injected them in an illegal manner, said the statement, according to SPA. He had illicit relationships with a number of women who received the injections, it added. The statement said the pharmaceuticals the men allegedly traded in have adverse effects on the nervous and respiratory systems and the heart. The Saudi embassy had reportedly issued a similar statement earlier this month saying that the charges against the doctors included drug trafficking and sexual crimes. The Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization (EUHRO) slammed the Saudi claims in a statement. The EUHRO said that the verdict didn t mention any drug trafficking nor narcotics but rather the pain killers and medical drugs. It accused the Saudi embassy of throwing false allegations instead of investigating the case with the Saudi authorities. In a previous interview, Ahmed, Raouf s son argued the addicting claims to be false. My father was following the addiction relief plan that specialists had designed for the princess, Ahmed told Daily News Egypt in a previous interview. "My father didn t even bring them the medicine; they already had it there. Manpower and Immigration Minister Aisha Abdel Hadi issued a decree Wednesday banning new permits for Egyptian doctors wanting to work in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is home to 5.6 million foreign workers employed in sectors such as oil, business, health and engineering. The Saudi population is 22 million. - Additional reporting by Daily News Egypt reporter Manar Ammar.
