Egypt’s Public Prosecutor on Thursday ordered the referral of the head of the Egyptian Karate Federation‘s Medical Committee, the head of the Alexandria Karate Region, and the head of the Federation’s Competitions Committee to the competent misdemeanor court.
The referral order charged the officials with negligence resulting in the death of a player participating in the Republic Championship.
Prosecution investigations revealed that the defendants violated the Minister of Youth and Sports’ decision requiring the provision of qualified medical personnel during the Republic Championship events, as they allowed emergency care tasks to be assigned to individuals without professional licenses.
Investigations also revealed that the first defendant worked in obstetrics and gynecology, a specialty unsuitable for medical supervision of combat tournaments.
The defendants also failed to provide an automatic defibrillator at the tournament venue and contracted with an unlicensed medical services company, violating the Egyptian Karate Federation’s instructions.
In light of the findings of the investigations, the Public Prosecution issued several recommendations, including:
- Full compliance with the provisions of Ministerial Resolution #1642 of 2024, as one of the basic requirements for holding sports tournaments, particularly with regard to reviewing each player’s medical file to ensure that there is no medical history that would prevent them from participating, and providing a specialist doctor for critical cases and intensive care in each tournament, especially combat sports and athletics tournaments.
- Verify the licenses of ambulance companies issued by the Egyptian Ambulance Authority before contracting with them, in accordance with Minister of Health and Population Resolution #246 of 2019, to ensure their compliance with approved medical requirements.
- Reviewing the qualifications of ambulance crews before the start of tournaments and ensuring they have received cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training courses from the Ambulance Authority.
- The heads of sports federations’ medical committees must be selected based on their medical competencies, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
