A Sydney nurse who allegedly threatened to harm Israeli patients in a video with a social media influencer has apologised again through his lawyer and vowed to cooperate with police.
Police are still working to determine if any charges can be laid against nurses Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh after the video emerged last week.
Today, Nadir’s lawyer Mohamad Sakr apologised once again on behalf of his client.
“By no means does he protect what he has done or hide from it,” he said.
“He does not represent a community of faith.”
Detectives have yet to formally interview both nurses after only receiving the full video from an Israeli influencer over the weekend.
Sakr told 9News that Nadir is planning on attending Bankstown Police Station once he is mentally fit to do so.
“He is more than happy to cooperate with police,” he said.
Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman condemned the nurses for their “terrible comment” but said they are being treated as if they had “committed the absolute worst crime imaginable”.
“The prime minister has commented. Premiers and ministers have weighed in. The entire media landscape has been consumed by the story, front page news around the country for days on end,” she said in a social media video.
“These individuals have been fired, banned from ever working as nurses again, raided by police, placed under the most intense public scrutiny, and now [they are] the ones being hospitalised.
“They’ve apologised, they’ve been punished. What is the end goal here? What exactly are we trying to achieve justice or just public humiliation?”
“If we hold two 20-somethings accountable, how can we allow a major media organisation to get off scot-free?” she said.
Payman’s comments echoed a statement from the Lebanese Muslim Association, saying the controversy isn’t about what was said in the video of the nurses, but instead “the speed, intensity and uniformity of response” from the government and the media and the “calculated and politically-motivated outrage”.
