Lebanon Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said Wednesday that the doctor whose clinic he ordered shut one day earlier over his involvement in a sex slaves ring to “rot in jail.”
“Who knew that one day we’d hear of such things in Lebanon? If the law was being enforced strictly, would this have happened?” Abu Faour said during a press conference after a meeting with the ministry’s Medical Errors Committee.
Dr. Riad al-Alam’s abortion clinic was shuttered by authorities Tuesday, days after he confessed to performing about 200 abortions on the 75 sex slaves recently freed by police in Jounieh, north of Beirut.
The Health Ministry also banned Alam, who was arrested last Thursday, from practicing anywhere on Lebanese territory pending investigations into the case.
“Is this man a doctor, or a criminal? Does he belong in a clinic, or a prison?” Abu Faour continued, defending his decision to shutter Alam’s clinic.
He responded to remarks made by head of Lebanon’s Order of Physicians Antoine Boustani Tuesday, who said that Abu Faour’s move to shut the clinic was illegal.
“I hope no one defends this monster (Alam) so they don’t turn into monsters themselves,” Abu Faour said, adding that there were serious attempts by some people to defend the doctor.
The minister said the investigations into Alam’s case should be a point of cooperation between his ministry and the Order of Physicians instead of a point of dispute.
“This man must not ruin the reputation of doctors and the profession in Lebanon” he added.
Abu Faour said the human trafficking ring had been operating for seven years in Jounieh, and lashed out at the security forces for their negligence in different corruption files which have recently surfaced.
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