The case against Professor Cyril Karabus was again postponed in a UAE court, to the shock and dismay of his lawyers and family.
|||Cape Town - The case against Cape Town paediatric oncologist Professor Cyril Karabus was again postponed in a United Arab Emirates court this morning, to the shock and dismay of his lawyers and family.
This comes after the government officially called on UAE prosecutors to withdraw their appeal against his acquittal on manslaughter charges.
Karabus was charged after a child he had treated for leukaemia died in the UAE.
His Cape Town lawyer Michael Bagraim this morning confirmed the case had been postponed to April 29 to allow the court to “establish the veracity” of a statement by Karabus’s lawyers.
The statement was that Karabus had no part in a decision to stop treatment of the child shortly before her death.
“We are shocked because this should actually be a knowledge of court, not something that needs to be verified,” Bagraim said.
“It is a known fact that Dr Karabus was not on duty at the time when the medication to the child was stopped by a neurosurgeon who was on duty.
“One thing that keeps us positive is the fact that this time, the postponement is much shorter at six days.
It was also the only problem that reared its head this time.”
On Monday, Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Marius Fransman said: “As government, we have repeatedly expressed our grave concern with the anxiety and trauma that Karabus, pictured, and his family have been subjected to as a result of the continued postponements that have characterised this case.”
Fransman visited Abu Dhabi and Dubai last month to intervene.
“It is now really time for the professor to be reunited with his family. We call on them to withdraw the appeal.
“As a democratic state, we do respect the sovereignty and the independence of the judicial system of the UAE.”
Meanwhile, UCT’S Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, and the School of Child and Adolescent Health (Scah) at Red Cross Children’s Hospital have withdrawn from the Africa Health Exhibition in protest at the UAE’s treatment of Karabus.
The department’s head and director of Scah, Professor Heather Zar, announced the boycott yesterday. The move comes soon after the Health Professions Council of SA, the SA Medical Association, and several doctors pulled out of the three-day conference in protest at the way the UAE has handled the detention of Karabus.
The conference, run by Dubai-based company Informa Life, is due to take place in Joburg next month.
Cape Argus