Raouf Amin, an Egyptian doctor, who worked in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced to 750 lashes a year ago after being accused of causing a patient to become addicted to morphine. After he filed an appeal, a judge doubled Amin's sentence to 1,500 lashes followed by 14 years in jail.
"When you appeal against a sentencing it is the rule that it cannot go higher, but in Saudi Arabia it appears anything is possible," the newspaper quoted Hafez Abu Saeda, the director of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR).
A court found the doctor, who has lived and worked in the Gulf state for more than 20 years, guilty of causing the princess' addiction to morphine. The 52-year-old had been treating the woman, who had suffered a back injury after a fall, for several months.
The woman had previously been prescribed morphine by medical staff in the U.S. and Amin had merely continued her treatment, "So it is obvious that the doctor was not at fault for her addiction," Saeda said.
Amin is due to receive 70 lashes every 10 days until the sentence has been carried out and he will then be sent to prison for 14 years.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the Saudi embassy in Cairo both refused to comment on the sentence, saying the case is still under investigation.
