Beauty, Blood Centers Shut as 4 Held in Expired Sugar Case

Health Minister Wael Abou Faour on Thursday ordered the closure of a number of beauty centers and blood drawing labs, as the judiciary jailed four Tripoli Port employees on suspicion of their involvement in the expired sugar case.

“Following an authorization from acting North Prosecutor Wael Hassan, the Tripoli judicial police department arrested four people in connection with the case of the spoiled sugar at the Tripoli Port,” state-run National News Agency reported.

They were referred to the competent judicial authorities.

The prosecutor has also asked for the permission of the relevant authorities to prosecute employees at the Customs Administration and the Ministry of Economy.

Earlier on Thursday, Abou Faour ordered the shutting down of several blood drawing centers owned by physicians and pharmacists after it was unveiled that they were “either working for other centers and laboratories or had suspended operations at their main labs, which renders these drawing centers illegal, in violation of the law regulating the work of medical labs.”

In light of a report from the Sidon health department, the minister also ordered a “two-week, renewable closure” of several beauty centers.

They were ordered shut for their “violation of work conditions, lack of licenses and the absence of specialized, full-time doctors,” said the minister.

The measures come amid an unprecedented food safety campaign launched by Abou Faour around a month ago in the food industry, which has so far involved restaurants, factories, farms, slaughterhouses and even the wheat silos at Beirut's port and the sugar depots at Tripoli's port.

Six-hundred tons of expired sugar have been recently seized at the Tripoli port, which has sparked a heated debate between the ministries of health and economy.

The list of the violating blood centers owned by doctors:

Bassam Shoaib (Shuwaifat's al-Amrousiyeh)

George al-Baaino (Taalbaya)

Qassem Slim (Sarafand)

Hussein Haidar (al-Saksakiyeh)

The list of the violating blood centers owned by pharmacists:

Hussein Khalife (Sarafand)

Joseph Najjar (Anfeh)

Imad al-Afsh (town of Ali al-Nahri)

Ricardo Sarraf (Zgharta's Kfaryashit)

The list of the violating beauty centers:

The Jane Nassar Center in Sidon's al-Hilaliyeh (owned by Hussam Mashmoushi)

The Seif Beauty Clinic in Sidon (owned by Pierre Hashash)

The Silkor Center on Sidon's Elia roundabout

Y.R.

M.T.