Hassan Cheruppa

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Mohammed Rabeeullah, founder & chairman of Shifa Al-Jazeera Medical group, thanked the Saudi authorities for upholding a judicial system that ensures justice to all people irrespective of whether they are citizens or foreigners.



“The recent verdict of the Jeddah General Court has once again reinforced our faith in the Kingdom’s judicial system, and I thank the authorities from the bottom of my heart for this noble gesture. This would help reiterate to the world that justice prevails in the Kingdom, and people all over the world can have full faith and trust in it,” he said in comments to the verdict.



Earlier this month, the court had ordered the owner of a private hospital in the city to pay SR43 million to Rabeeullah within five days for violating the agreement with the Indian national. Until last year, Rabeeullah had an investor license to manage and run hospitals in the Kingdom.



“I had invested SR43 million to run an 80-bed hospital as a foreign investor. Later, to my disappointment, I realized that the hospital has to have a minimum 100-bed to transfer it into my own name as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and Saudi Arabian General Investment Agency. At this juncture, I had to abandon the project and hand it over to my long time trusted Saudi friend with whom I had a legal agreement,” he said, adding that the court found that the Saudi had violated the agreement.



Rabeeullah, who hails from Malappuram district of Kerala, has played a remarkable role in making available of quality medical treatment at affordable rates to low and middle class people in the Kingdom and other Gulf states. He arrived in the Kingdom more than 30 years ago as a construction company worker.



“My sweat and toil under sun, and strong empathy for fellow workers who had similar fate was virtually what prompted me to launch affordable polyclinics,” the enterprising Indian entrepreneur said.



Rabeeullah’s group runs medical centers in Riyadh and Jeddah as well as in Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. He has plans to open two hospitals in Oman, and one in Dubai next year. Two medical centers will be opened in Kuwait and Qatar in April and May respectively.