Health Ministry Seals with Red Wax Office of Doctor Involved in Sex Trafficking Ring

The Health Ministry sealed with red wax on Tuesday the clinic of a doctor involved in the recently uncovered sex trafficking ring.

Officials from the ministry accompanied by security forces raided the clinic of Dr. Riyad al-Alam in the Jounieh area north of Beirut.

“He will be barred from practicing medicine in Lebanon,” announced the ministry.

Alam was not present at his clinic at the time of the raid, reported LBCI television.

Alam was previously briefly detained following the discovery of the ring.

He confessed to performing around 60 abortions and that he was aware of their work at nightclubs.

He was then released from custody.

Another doctor, identified as George A., and a nurse have been linked to the ring, but investigations have not yet been held with them, said al-Akhbar newspaper.

The Internal Security Forces announced on Thursday that they had busted Lebanon's largest known sex trafficking ring and freed 75 mainly Syrian women.

"This is the largest sex trafficking ring we've uncovered since the outbreak of the Syrian war," a Lebanese security source told AFP.

Even before the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, Syrian women had been pushed into the illicit sex trade in neighboring Lebanon.

On Thursday, the ISF said the members of the ring were arrested in the Jounieh region, detaining ten men and eight female workers.

Two of the ring's masterminds are still on the run.

M.T.

D.A.