Australian envoy asks Lebanese govt for details of prison sentence for Sydney doctor

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.”