SANA’A, March 11 — A group of doctors and staff at the Cancer Center at the Republican Hospital demonstrated on Sunday morning. They objected to instructions by president Hadi that former manager of the center Dr. Nadeem Muhammed Saeed be reinstated.

Saeed was dismissed late last year by the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdulkareem Rasa’a.

According to the demonstrating staff workers, the dismissal of Saeed came late, but  was the fair result of charges of corruption and the smuggling of medications. The doctors and staff filed a memorandum about Saeed, which was then forwarded to president Hadi, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Health.

For his part, Dr. Afif al-Nabihy, a consultant on tumors, said “Our demand is clear and explicit - it is that we refuse the return of the former manager Dr. Saeed, who destroyed the Cancer Center for over seven years. The center became his own, and not a public center. It was established to serve those segments of the community that most need help.

Dr. Ahmed Shamlan added that the change came suddenly and officially from the former Minister of Health. Dr. Ali al-Ashwal replaced him despite evidence of corruption against Dr. Saeed which spanned multiple years. The dismissal came, however, because of political reasons, according to the dismissed manager.

Saeed said what happened yesterday morning was the result of ten people - doctors and staff in the center – charging him and using bad words against him in an effort to bar his return to the center.

“My return came by way of the order of president Hadi, who personally viewed the official papers issued by the Ministry of Legal Affairs and the Ministry of Human Rights, which stated that the dismissal was unfair and invalid,” he said.

“The former ministry was a transitional ministry. I was dismissed during that period while I was on Haj (pilgrimage). That decision is invalid according the Ministry of Labor and Human Rights, which judged that my return to the center was legitimate,” he said.

“If I was involved in any form of corruption, this would not make me feel determined to return to the center...but a confidence in my history is what makes me feel determined to stay,” Saeed added.