An ice hockey game and a flash mob are some of the events planned to garner support and to raise funds for Cyril Karabus.
|||Cape Town - An ice hockey game and a flash mob are some of the events planned to garner support and raise funds for detained Cape Town professor, Cyril Karabus.
The paediatric oncologist is due to appear in the Abu Dhabi court on April 23, after more than 16 postponements since his arrest in Dubai on August 18.
Although Karabus, 78, was acquitted of manslaughter charges more than three weeks ago, he is not allowed to leave the UAE as the prosecution has appealed against his acquittal. His local lawyer, Michael Bagraim, said they had reserved a seat for Karabus on a flight to Cape Town for April 24.
“We really hope he will be on that flight. This is now the fourth time we have reserved a seat for him. Each time we get our hopes up, only to be disappointed again,” he said. “Karabus is very upset, depressed and has lost all hope.”
Karabus was tried, convicted and sentenced in absentia for the murder of a three-year-old Yemeni girl he treated for leukaemia in 2002, during his short stint as a locum at an Emirates’ hospital. He was arrested in August when passing through the UAE on a flight from Canada to South Africa.
Meanwhile, the DA’s spokesman on International Relations and Co-operation, Ian Davidson, has called on the South African government to apply more pressure on the UAE authorities to release Karabus.
“It is time that the department of International Relations and Co-operation sent another urgent démarche to the UAE requesting that Professor Karabus be allowed to return home, pending their decision to appeal his acquittal.”
In January, South Africa sent a démarche, a strong diplomatic statement, to the UAE demanding that Karabus’s case be expedited.
Davidson said he would write to the minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, to ask that she appeal to the UAE Ambassador in South Africa, and her counterpart in the UAE, for Professor Karabus’s freedom.
A flash mob, consisting of Irish and hip hop dancers, will take place at a popular shopping centre on April 27, said Táryn Harkness, a supporter of Karabus. A flash mob is a brief gathering of a group of people in a public space for the purpose of doing a dance routine, or other entertaining activity. The group is notified usually on social networks at short notice.
“The group will be wearing T-shirts emblazoned with Karabus’s name in an attempt to further increase awareness of his case,” said Harkness.
A fund-raising ice hockey game will take place at the GrandWest Casino’s South Block E, on Thursday, at 8pm. Tickets cost R30 at Computicket.
nontando.mposo@inl.co.za
Cape Argus