Muhammad Ahmad Al-Hassani

Okaz

A friend of mine, who was a PhD student on scholarship in England, told me how he once went to court with his friend who was also on scholarship to testify before a judge with regard to a case of assault. The friend had been involved in a fistfight with a British citizen, who then filed a lawsuit against him. My friend went to court with his friend after he hired a lawyer to represent him. The case was settled peacefully after the lawyer attributed the fight to a cultural misunderstanding between the Saudi scholarship student and the British citizen. The judge accepted the lawyer’s presentation and sentenced the Saudi student to a fine of 200 pounds if the student admitted guilt. The case was over in the first session.

My friend told me that he saw a small medical clinic in the corner of the court, and he asked the lawyer why it was there. He told him that some people who appear in court for social, financial or criminal charges might suffer from medical conditions. Some of them may suffer from blood pressure problems, while others may suffer from heart problems. If they become overly nervous or excited or are shocked by a verdict that they did not expect, some of them may collapse.

This is the role of the medical clinic, which is staffed with a doctor and a nurse. They quickly provide emergency medical help before an ambulance arrives. They play a positive role in saving people’s lives.

Based on this, my friend, who is now a doctor, said that he sees the importance of establishing such medical clinics in our courts and providing this humanitarian service.

It will not cost the Ministry of Justice much to hire doctors and nurses to work in each court, especially as we have many medical graduates who cannot find jobs. Some of these graduates are working in small private clinics for very modest salaries. This will create many jobs in the ministry. The Shoura Council should study this idea to see if it can benefit our country.