Sunday 04/January/2026 – 05:44 PM
The First Circuit for Rights and Liberties at the State Council Court decided to postpone consideration of the lawsuit filed to dismiss and discipline a number of doctors from the Abbasiya Mental Health Hospital until next April 18, in order to provide the court with the Ministry of Health’s response, including details of the work of the Abbasiya Committee and its technical reports.
Postponing the lawsuit to dismiss and discipline Abbasiya doctors
Case No. 25143 of 1979 BC, filed by a lawyer, challenges the medical and psychological reports issued by Abbasiya Hospital, which criminal courts relied upon to convict women of killing their children, and to issue harsh sentences that reached the death penalty and life imprisonment.
The case addresses the medical reasons behind mothers killing their children and attributes it to pregnancy and postpartum depression, serious cases of psychological depression, and social conditions.
The lawsuit demanded the dismissal and discipline of the doctors who wrote those reports, along with the cancellation of their implications, considering that they were deficient and contrary to what modern science has established in diagnosing pregnancy depressive disorders, postpartum depression and psychosis, and the accompanying loss of control and severe disturbance in perception and behavior.
The lawsuit asserted that the challenged reports neglected to mention scientific references and internationally approved medical protocols, and neglected to describe serious medical cases that are considered psychological emergencies, which resulted in grave injustice and waste of the rights of defendants who were not fully criminally responsible for their actions, considering this to be equivalent to testimony that does not conform to scientific truth.
The lawsuit referred to a number of cases in which women were convicted based on reports issued by Abbasiya Hospital, including the cases of a woman from Mansoura, and a pharmacist known in the media for the Blue Elephant pills case, as well as other cases in which the lawsuit demanded a re-examination of its reports and re-trials in light of the invalidity of the medical basis on which the rulings were based.
The lawsuit stressed that postpartum depression may last for years, and in some cases is accompanied by hallucinations, delusions, suicidal tendencies, or tendencies to harm children, which denies the availability of free will and full awareness, and prevents the mother from being held criminally accountable according to the same traditional standards.
The court asked the Ministry of Health to provide a comprehensive response to the lawsuit’s requests, including the formation of the Abbasiya Committee, its work, its scientific method, and the protocols adopted in preparing the psychological reports in question, in preparation for adjudicating the lawsuit.
