CHRISTIAN EXPATRIATE DOCTOR TOLD TO LEAVE KINGDOM

C O N F I D E N T I A L RIYADH 003977 SIPDIS SIPDIS DHAHRAN SENDS PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/21/2016 TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF SA SUBJECT: CHRISTIAN EXPATRIATE DOCTOR TOLD TO LEAVE KINGDOM Classified by Consul General John Kincannon for reason 1.4 (d). ¶1. (C) Mission and DRL contact Roy Markara told PolOff on May 18 that Dr. Florence Isaac, a Christian doctor of Indian origin who has been working in the Kingdom for a number of years, had her medical license suspended and was told by the SAG that she had to leave the Kingdom before June 16. According to Markara, who said he had met with her the previous afternoon, Dr. Isaac's troubles began about one year ago, when she was accused by the Mutawa' of proselytizing thanks to several words she had taped on the wall of her office such as "prayer" and "love." She received a deportation notice soon thereafter, but the notice was suspended, perhaps, according to Markara, because of the intervention of her employer, the director of the Mohammed Al-Dossari Hospital in Khobar. Yet Dr. Isaac recently received a notice from the Eastern Province (EP) branch of the health ministry, Markara said, informing her that her medical license was suspended and that she had to leave the Kingdom before June 16. According to Markara, an appeal from the hospital director to Mohammed bin Naif, deputy Minister of the Interior, had gone unanswered. Markara said that Dr. Isaac and her family were resigned to the fact that they had to leave the Kingdom, recounting that the previous weekend, shortly after they hosted a meeting of five or six fellow Christians in their house, Dr. Isaac had received a call from an unknown person who told her, "this will be the last meeting in your house." ¶2. (C) Markara and a friend of his, who is a leader in the resident expatriate Indian Christian community in the EP and who was at the meeting with PolOff, noted that, to the best of their knowledge, Dr. Isaac's case was the first case in several years where an expatriate Christian resident in the EP was asked to leave the Kingdom because of alleged religious activities. (APPROVED: KINCANNON) GFOELLER