Some 200 physicians across Lebanon will be shortly providing free medical and psychological assistance to former detainees in Israeli prisons, The Daily Star reported Saturday.
The aid program, which is aimed at helping the ex-prisoners re-adapt to society, was announced Friday at a Press Federation conference.
The Khiam Rehabilitation Center for the Victims of Torture, which was established by the Follow-Up Committee for the Support of Lebanese Detainees in Israeli Prisons in June 1999, will present more than 5,000 former detainees with the names and the addresses of physicians involved in this program, said the daily.
Director Mohammed Safa was quoted by the paper as saying that “our center isn’t a medical one, but we will guide the former detainees to visit the doctor they need to.”
Safa added that, the former detainees would simply be required to present prospective physicians with an ID badge proving their previous detention.
“The center will be responsible for creating these IDs,” he said. “But until then, any document proving their incarceration would be useful.”
Doctors’ Association President Ghassan Jafar announced that 200 doctors nationwide would be providing free treatment and medicines.
However, he explained that some expensive procedures such as dentistry, x-rays, and physiotherapy treatments would be excluded due to their cost, though he promised to work on including them later – Albawaba.com
