Criminal injected people with morphine and atropine to build their case that the authorities were using nerve gas agents against the protesters, the Acting Minister of Health Dr Fatima Al Balooshi revealed on Tuesday.
Dr Fatima Al Balooshi told a Press conference that 47 staff of SMC including 24 doctors and 23 paramedics facing charges at this stage. She said that there were six investigation committees working day and night to complete the all aspects of ongoing investigations and it would take some weeks to finish this herculean task.
During the deplorable incidents that hit Bahrain starting 14 February 2011, some medical and paramedical staff got involved in activities that sharply clashed with standard medical work and ethics. Their practices violated all humanitarian, religious, ethical and genuine citizenship values and norms and turned into barbarous crimes.
Several doctors, nurses, paramedics and administrators at the Salmaniya Medical Complex, the largest hospital in the Kingdom of Bahrain, took full control of the premises, including facilities, equipment and human resources. Hard evidence later showed that the complex was used extensively for the activities of the saboteurs who sought to spread chaos, cause disruptions and trouble and create sedition within the Kingdom.
In order to highlight the extent of the dangerous actions committed at the premises, and within the confines of what can be disclosed according to HE the Military Prosecutor, we wish to share with you some of the findings revealed by the ongoing investigations:
First of all, one doctor took advantage of his position within the hospital to support his colleagues involved in the events in a bid to escalate the situation and distort the image of Bahrain within the international community. His goal was to put pressure on the authorities and erode their capabilities in dealing with the events unfolding at that time. He was followed by a number of employees at the hospital. They held meetings inside and outside the hospital, often at the doctor’s private clinic to coordinate their efforts and contribute through the use of the Salmaniya hospital to the developments and to support the demonstrators.
They formed a committee, headed by the doctor, to oversee the activities and assigned the various tasks. They selected a spokesperson for the committee as well as a secretary general and formed specialized subcommittees, such as the media panel which played a highly visible role in the contact between the defendants and the demonstrators.
Another doctor was tasked with the paper work in cooperation with accomplices in order to forge the hospital’s certificates and records and produce fake statistics. The move was highly unethical and eventually caused the non-providing of crucial and much-needed medical care and resulted in serious harm and even the death of patients. The unlawful detention of people and the seizure and abuse of public funds were regular crimes throughout the occupation of the hospital.
Based on the investigation results so far as well as on the confessions of some of the defendants and on witnesses’ reports and testimonies, there is conclusive evidence that the following crimes took place: They imposed a full control on who enters or leaves the hospital by guarding and monitoring its gates and assigning saboteurs and brutes to manage them.
They did not allow the treatment of some citizens and residents based on their sect affiliations and restrict medical care for those who were admitted for one reason or another into the hospital. The records clearly show how remarks were placed on the records of patients who belonged to a sect that differed from that of the defendants. “The attribute baltaji (thug) was used.”