The United Arab Emirates court has found Prof Cyril Karabus not guilty, the international relations department said.
|||Pretoria - The United Arab Emirates court has found Prof Cyril Karabus not guilty, the international relations department said on Thursday.
“He was in court today and the court has found him not guilty,” spokesman Clayson Monyela said.
“As the South African government we are quite pleased that finally he is a free man.”
Earlier this week it was understood that a UAE medical review committee had absolved Karabus from all blame.
He was convicted in absentia in the UAE on charges of manslaughter and falsifying documents after the death of a three-year-old cancer patient.
He was sentenced, in absentia, to three years in jail.
Karabus, 77, is an emeritus professor at the University of Cape Town and is a specialist paediatric oncologist.
Unaware of the charges and sentence, he was arrested and charged in Dubai on August 18, while in transit on his return to South Africa from Toronto, in Canada, where he had attended his son's wedding.
Monyela said the South African government had taken various measures to plead Karabus' case.
“We see this as a vindication of what the professor was saying all along,” he said.
“We as government also feel vindicated.”
Monyela thanked everyone who was involved in the matter. - Sapa