Doctor who cried rape could be disciplined

Disciplinary charges could be brought against the doctor who wrongly claimed a Somali infant was raped, following the conclusion of an internal investigation.

Efthymios Tsivitanides, assistant director of pediatric surgery at Nicosia’s Makarios Children Hospital, may face disciplinary charges after a two-month-long probe had looked into whether the doctor violated protocol when he announced publicly that a Somali 5-month-old girl was definitely raped and that it could also have been a victim of genital mutilation.

As it turned out, Tsivitanides reportedly was not one of the doctors who examined the baby in February. Hospital administrators were quick to reject the comments saying there had been no evidence of rape.

The baby had been taken to hospital after she developed a rush around her genitalia. The father of the girl, who was detained and later remanded for five days, vehemently denied any wrongdoing while the mother also questioned the arrest.

But police said they found both their personal accounts as unreliable, after the mother saiid the father was alone with the baby and that Tsivitanides said he was completely certain that the baby had been raped. The doctor also added that never in his 32 years in the profession had he come across such a “shocking and abhorrent incident.”

The father was released after his remand expired and a probe was ordered by the Health Ministry to examine whether or not the doctor had a scientific basis to make the rape claims.

But reports on Friday did not say whether the investigation found that the protocol at the hospital had been violated, according to media reports. It merely suggested Tsivitanides could be disciplined for his own personal actions.

A disciplinary action is not a criminal conviction but an incident becomes part of a record that cannot be expunged.