Health practitioner sentenced to 5 years in prison for mishandling newborn babies, ordered to pay about $27k fine
A health practitioner has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 riyals ($26,666) for aggressively handling and assaulting 11 newborn babies, Saudi Arabia’s Public Prosecution said Monday.
The Public Prosecution said that accusations were leveled against the female practitioner, who works in a newborn nursery department, after surveillance cameras showed her “exercising her work with great force and violence on one of the infants.”
“She was also spotted assaulting the infant’s face three times in which she transgressed her responsibilities and tasks as a health [practitioner] by intentionally committing a felony against newborns,” who rely on protection and care, the prosecution said.
Investigations then showed that the practitioner had repeated the same actions with other infants blaming her use of violence on her “work load.”
The practitioner was referred to the relevant judicial authorities where the preliminary ruling called for her to be sentenced to five years in prison in addition to paying a fine. However, the ruling was appealed in the hopes that she will be handed a stricter punishment, the Public Prosecution said.
It added that the practitioner misused trust and she misused her job as a caregiver for the infants saying that protecting newborns is a must.
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