On Monday, the Zurich district court sentenced a pediatric heart surgeon to a conditional fine for making multiple threats. The 45-year-old had threatened senior staff at the children’s hospital with death.
For the court, it was created that at a mediation session in 2019, sentences were made in which “afterward everyone present was no longer comfortable,” as the judge said. These statements would have impaired the sense of security of all the injured parties.
Not yet legally binding
Because of multiple threats, the heart surgeon received a fine of 80 daily rates of 30 francs, conditional on a probationary period of two years. The verdict is not yet legally binding. The doctor can still move on to the Supreme Court.
Those present, including members of the management of the children’s hospital, unanimously testified that they had received death threats from the previously dismissed doctor. Among other things, he announced that he would get his rights, but “not get his hands dirty”.
“Boom two meters in the air”
Where he comes from, Egypt, such things are done differently, that’s why he has connections, the doctor said, according to the other participants in the meeting. With another problem, he had already attacked someone with the car, “and then boom two meters in the air”. After the meeting, the children’s hospital reported the case to the police and commissioned an armed security service.
The threats also had an impact on the private lives of the participants in the meeting. They all felt threatened and hired their own security guards who accompanied them from then on. One bought a pepper spray, another got his army pistol ready. They canceled events, kept the shutters down and forbade their children to play outside.
Protested against dismissal with hunger strike
The trigger for the conflict was that the children’s hospital dismissed the doctor, citing “inappropriate social behavior” and “inadequate services” as reasons for the dismissal. The surgeon objected and even went on a hunger strike in April 2019 to protest his dismissal. Various media reported on the escalated dispute.
His lawyer argued on Monday that his client had by no means threatened violence, but that there would be a legal dispute. If the meeting participants felt threatened, according to the lawyer, it was “their own perception”.
Defender claims “racist undertones”.
The problem is not the statements of his client, but the prejudices of the meeting participants. These would have had a preconceived notion because of his Egyptian heritage. In addition, they would have understood him poorly because of his lack of German.
In the minutes of an earlier crisis meeting, the Kispi attested to a “mania of honor”. His client was portrayed as a “high-grade psychopath”. Keywords such as “Egyptians, Muslims, status symbols, loss of face” would also appear in this protocol. For an institution like the Kispi, that’s not just unprofessional, “it has a racist undertone.”
The dispute is not over with the present judgment. In June, the parties meet again in court, among other things, because of the job reference. The heart surgeon demands more benevolent formulations. (SDA)