The Egyptian authorities said, on Wednesday, that they trust the “legal procedures in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” following the killing of an Egyptian pharmacist by a Saudi woman.
The Egyptian Ministry of Immigration stated in statement “Ahmed Hatem Madi was working in a pharmacy in the Sakaka area in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and he died following being shot in the pharmacy where he worked,” noting that the victim came from “the village of Kafr Danshaway, the center of the martyrs in Menoufia Governorate.”
The statement added that “the Minister of State for Immigration and Egyptian Affairs Abroad, Ambassador Nabila Makram Abdel-Shahid, assured the family of the murdered pharmacist that all measures were taken to ensure the speedy return of the body” to Egypt as soon as “as soon as the legal procedures in Saudi Arabia are completed.”
The statement indicated that “the Minister of Immigration confirmed, during a phone call to the family, that the Egyptian young man was killed while doing his work,” noting that “the Egyptian embassy acted immediately… to ensure all legal procedures, and to follow up on the progress of investigations with the perpetrator.”
In turn, the Egyptian “Cairo 24” website reported that the pharmacist was killed as a result of his refusal to “give a Saudi woman a treatment that can only be given with a prescription.”
The site quoted one of the victim’s neighbors as saying that “the owners of the shops adjacent to the pharmacy reported a verbal altercation, as a result of the pharmacist’s refusal to give the woman an antibiotic that can only be given by prescription, in compliance with the laws of the Saudi health authorities.”
He added that the Saudi woman then went to her car to get her own pistol, entered the pharmacy once more and shot him two shots in the back, causing him to lacerate his lung, and the death of his life following he was transferred to the hospital.
According to the “Cairo 24” website, the murdered pharmacist is married with a three-year-old son and was planning to leave his job and return to Egypt next month.
Saudi law prohibits dispensing antibiotics without a doctor’s prescription, and the penalty for violating the law is up to one year in prison, a fine of 100,000 riyals, and the withdrawal of a license to practice the profession.
Until the time of this report was published, the Saudi authorities did not reveal any details regarding the identity of the killer, which Egyptian media reported on being arrested by the Saudi police, while others reported that she surrendered to the authorities following carrying out the killing.
