BEIRUT: The Lebanese doctor released earlier this week after being detained over the death of one of his patients said Thursday there was no evidence to indicate he had committed medical malpractice.

“The report released by the Order [of Physicians] is very clear and it said nothing about medical malpractice,” Doctor Musa Abu Hamad, who was released on bail Wednesday, told a news conference.

“If I was to commit any malpractice, we wouldn’t have seen big numbers of doctors coming to the Order [of Physicians],” he said.

On Monday, hundreds of physicians held a strike aimed at pressuring the Mount Lebanon Prosecution Committee to release Abu Hamad until the probe into the death of Rita Zogheib and her fetus is completed.

Following several hearing sessions with Abu Hamad and representatives of the Order of Physicians, the Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor ordered the precautionary detention of Abu Hamad.

Abu Hamad was released Wednesday on LL50 million bail.

Zogheib’s case is the first serious medical incident that has been brought before the judiciary. The Order of Physicians usually oversees cases of malpractice, sanctioning the doctors or revoking their license.

According to the autopsy of Zogheib’s body, an extremely rare condition that affects pregnant women led to her death.

The head of the Order, Dr. Sharaf Abu Sharaf, who also spoke during Thursday’s news conference, reiterated that the medical body was the only qualified scientific body to carry out a probe into a medical incident and to take the necessary disciplinary measures against doctors at fault.

Abu Sharaf also slammed his colleague’s detention.

“The way he [Abu Hamad] was treated was an insult to him and every single doctor,” Abu Sharaf said.

He also complained that Abu Hamad’s bail had been set too high and that others “with [bad] records were released [on bails] worth only LL500,000.”