Egyptian Ambassador to the Kingdom Mahmoud Auf denied that he was recalled in the wake of the sentencing of two Egyptian medics to jail and whipping after being found guilty of malpractice, according to a statement carried by SPA, Sunday. Auf was speaking from Cairo, Egypt. He said he was in Egypt to prepare for this coming Haj season for Egyptian pilgrims and brief Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu El-Ghait on the status of the Egyptian community in Saudi Arabia. “The foreign ministry is very much concerned with this case,” said Ahmed Rizq, a ministry official, in a statement. “However, the Saudi judicial and political system should be respected.” Diplomacy should be given a chance to reach a solution and the harsh negative campaign launched against the Saudi judicial system should be stopped immediately, Auf said in a statement to the Egyptian Roz El Yousuf weekly magazine. Staging such a malicious media campaign against the court system in Saudi Arabia is not going to help the case, Auf said. It would only ruffle some feathers, he added. He said he held talks with Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of Riyadh, on the case in part of diplomatic campaign for leniency on the convicted two doctors. Rauf Amin Mohammad Al-Arabi, who had worked for the royal family for 20 years, was sentenced to 15 years in jail and 1,500 lashes. The jail term for Shawky Abd-Rabbu, another convict, was not known. Ambassador Auf delivered a message from convicted doctor Rauf Amin's wife to King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. “My children want their father to return swiftly and safely,” the doctor's wife Fathiya El-Hindawi told the Associated Press. “I hope the King will give them back their smiles.” The Egyptian community in the Kingdom which breaks the one million mark has always felt welcome by all Saudis, Auf said. The Saudi media was sensible in its handling of the case and did not launch a similar attack on Egypt, he said, by which it has gained the appreciation of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, he said. __
