Forensic center receives 144 sexual assault cases in 16 months

MADINAH: Dr. Bassam Qara, consultant and director of Forensic Medicine at Madinah Health, said that the Forensic Medicine Center received 144 cases of sexual abuse over 16 months.
Dr. Qara said that although some are suspicious of forensic medicine, it has been in the Kingdom since the 1960s and has gone through many important development stages. Forensic medicine plays a major role in inspecting crime scenes and inspecting victims of physical and sexual abuse.
He pointed out that forensic medicine examines the bodies of victims to define their injuries that resulted from an attack, in addition to revealing the cause of death. Sometimes forensic experts also have to accompany crime scene investigations to remote or desert areas to inspect crime scenes in order to write an accurate report of the situation.
Forensic medicine is also a rare specialization in the world in general, and in the Kingdom in particular. The state has also established a program to encourage people to study it and to prepare a competent staff base that is able to fulfil all of the job requirements.
Madinah Forensic Medicine Center is the first forensic center in the Kingdom and teaches the forensic specialization. Two classes have graduated from the center and there are now three Saudi doctors who hold the degree of specialist. There are also 13 doctors who are enrolled in the forensic medicine program in Madinah at present.
The center also has a consultant and four primary specialists, five regular specialists and six nursing technicians, in addition to three X-ray specialists, a lab specialist and a range of administrators.
Statistics showed that the center received a total of 340 deaths, of which 274 were men and 63 women, as well as three people with unknown nationalities. Around 89 cases were autopsied, of which 24 were found to be suicides while 11 were murders.
Dr. Qara said that the center examined 196 people, of which 137 were men and 49 were women. Sexual assault was present in 108 cases, and samples were taken from 15 cases for genetic analysis.
He added that weak medical experience disrupts the paths of some forensic investigations, so it has become important to provide a suitable health education environment to develop and expand the work of forensic medicine, by providing a competent staff base as well as promoting the best technologies.
He hoped that a special additional center for forensic medicine will be established soon, and also called on officials to set up an emergency center with a forensic department as soon as possible.
Dr. Qara added that many families refrain from brining their children to the forensic center if the crime has a sexual nature for fear of a scandal. He noted that this might lead to loss of evidence and abuses the rights of the victim. He called on families to speed up the reporting of sexual assault cases, and urged them to bring their clothing in a paper bag to be able to test them and maintain the rights of the victims by taking the necessary samples.
He said that all cases are treated with the utmost confidentiality and families don’t need to worry about the privacy of their members. “We at the forensic medicine center don’t issue press statements for any of the cases and anything that is reported is deemed to be incorrect and unlawful, and the center files a complaint with the Ministry of Information when this happens, because we believe that forensic medicine has an important role in revealing criminals,” he concluded.