Published: 27 August 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
MICHAEL VISONTAY: Dr Jamal Rifi was given ten years in absentia by a military court for ‘collaborating’ with Israel; doctor says Hezbollah is trying to intimidate him and his brother, a critic of the regime
AUSTRALIA’S AMBASSADOR TO Lebanon has asked the Lebanese government to clarify the decision by a military court to sentence a prominent Sydney doctor to ten years in prison in absentia for “collaborating” with Israel.
Ambassador Rebeka Grindlay told Dr Rifi in a telephone conversation on Wednesday night that she had contacted Lebanon’s defence and foreign affairs minister seeking urgent clarification, he told The Jewish Independent.
The military court sentenced Dr Rifi to prison “for being a collaborator and a traitor with the enemy," he said, which was code for his involvement with Project Rozana, a non-political charity which helps provide medical training for Palestinian medical workers and organise the transfer of Palestinian patients to hospitals in Israel.
Project Rozana was founded by the Australian Jewish businessman Ron Finkel and is run in collaboration with members of the local Jewish community. Dr Rifi has worked for the organisation since 2017.
Project Rozana said in a statement: "It was with some dismay that we learned of the sentencing of our colleague, Dr Jamal Rifi AM, to ten years imprisonment by a Lebanese Military Court.
"It has been alleged that Dr Rifi is guilty of ‘collaboration’, of ‘working and helping the enemy’. It would appear to refer to his life-saving humanitarian work (often medical based) with Project Rozana, working long distance from Australia – and helping oversee medical assistance to chronically and critically ill children.”
We will put pressure on the Lebanese government and the UN to abolish the military court and make sure no civilians can be sentenced by it in the future.
Dr Rifi has received statements of support from both major political parties since news of the sentence was made public. Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne tweeted “Dr Rifi is a valued member of Sydney’s Lebanese community…we are seeking urgent clarification of reports he has been convicted by a Lebanese military tribunal”. The shadow minister, Penny Wong, made a similar Tweet, and the Australia Israel & Jewish affairs Council (AIJAC) released a statement of support.
Dr Rifi said he appointed four lawyers in Lebanon to help him find a way to clear his name and ensure his reputation would not be tarnished by the decision, which he said he knew nothing about until his brother in Lebanon told him about it.
“I have also appointed a Sydney-based lawyer to study the case and take it to the international Human Rights commission,” he said. “I need to obtain the details of the judgment and find out why I haven’t been afforded natural justice or procedural fairness or even been informed of the sentence in the first place.”
Asked how he would fight the verdict, Dr Rifi said: “we will put pressure on the Lebanese government, the UN and human rights groups, to abolish the military court and to make sure no civilians can be sentenced by it in the future – this is a sentence that cannot be appealed.”
The timing of the announcement of my sentence was to deflect from my brother’s message saying that Hezbollah was involved in the 2013 Tripoli mosque bombings.
Dr Rifi said the timing of the sentence was related to the anniversary of the bombing of two mosques in Tripoli in 2013, which left 47 people dead and 800 injured. Dr Rifi’s brother, Ashraf, a former director-general of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, has accused Hezbollah of involvement in the explosions.
“The timing by the de facto spokesman from Hezbollah on his Twitter announcing my sentence was to deflect from my brother’s message saying that Hezbollah was involved in the bombings.”
This is not the first time that Hezbollah has attempted to silence Dr Rifi’s brother, a long-time thorn in its side, by intimidating him here in Sydney, where he has bult up a successful medical practice and become a prominent Muslim community leader. In 2020 he was also accused of being a Zionist collaborator.
Dr Rifi said Hezbollah is exploiting the fragility of Lebanese institutions and judicial system “to silence people like myself, and to discredit my good name, my brother and our whole family – and by doing this, to send a message to others to be silent or be dead, or in prison.”
“Imagine what would happen if another Australian citizen was convicted in a military court without being notified about it. Any self-respecting country would not let this happen.
“I must be doing something good for them to disregard the people who died in the Beirut port explosion, the long lines of cars waiting for petrol and people who can’t get their medicines and water,” Dr Rifi added, in reference to the country’s desperate economic situation.
Photo: Dr Jamal Rifi at the launch of the Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program, sponsored by Project Rozana, in November 2019. From left, Ron Finkel, Noor Massarwe, Dr Khadra Salami, Saeed Massarwe, Dr Jamal Rifi
