The Lebanese military has detained two soldiers caught on camera slapping and shoving a doctor in an emergency ward at a hospital in the northern city of Tripoli, the army said Wednesday.
The video, extensively circulated online, prompted anger and uproar especially as the nation’s health sector struggles to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the Arab News reported.
The closed-circuit TV footage from the hospital shows a group of armed soldiers cornering a doctor in scrubs in the corridors of an emergency ward. The soldiers, who appear angry, are seen slapping the doctor, then pushing him and following him into a room where they continue to slap him on the head.
In a statement to a local radio station, Selim Abi Saleh, who heads Tripoli’s physician’s union, said the hospital’s medical staff were trying to keep the soldiers from interrogating patient bleeding from a gun wound while he was getting urgent medical care.
“We denounce this, especially at this time when doctors are doing their utmost to defend the citizen’s health and then they get attacked by the security forces who are supposed to be supporting them,” Mr Abi Saleh said and called for disciplinary action against the soldiers.
The Lebanese armed forces described the incident as an “individual act” and said two soldiers were detained and an investigation was underway. Its statement said: “the army leadership regrets the incident” and reiterated its respect for doctors and their work.
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