Guilty doctor faces licence review

A doctor, who was found guilty of indecent acts, will have to now appear in front of a disciplinary board of the Cyprus Medical Association (CyMA), which could strip him of his medical licence, it emerged on Friday.

Speaking to CyBC, the head of the ethics committee at CyMA, Michalis Anastasiades, said now that the guilty verdict has been issued by the Nicosia District Court, the doctor will be brought in front of the CyMA disciplinary committee.

Commenting on a prior guilty verdict involving the same doctor in a similar case, Anastasiades said that the doctor had previously appeared in front of the disciplinary committee, but that the outcome was not made public.

Questioned by a journalist, he admitted that, at the time, the committee ruled in favour of the doctor and did not revoke his licence.

Anastasiades added that now they will also wait for the sentence to be given out, to proceed further.

He mentioned that CyMA had previously requested changes to the law to allow for temporary measures in similar cases. However, their suggestions are currently pending in the files of the legal service and health ministry. “Under the current law, the doctor [recently convicted] can continue to practice,” he emphasised.

On Wednesday, the doctor was found guilty of indecent acts against a patient who filed an official complaint against him back in the summer of 2020.

Following a hearing, the court deemed the doctor’s recollections and side of the story unreliable, instead considering the complainant’s testimony credible.

Subsequent to the conviction, the court scheduled a new trial for sentencing mitigation within the next month.

According to the prosecution, the doctor faced four charges of indecent assault against the complainant, all allegedly occurring on the same day, one after the other.

The complainant told the court that she had visited the doctor, a family friend, for specific examinations requiring anaesthesia.

She accused the doctor of taking her to a “closed space” within the premises to later engage in indecent acts four times within a few minutes after she regained consciousness.