Professor Cyril Karabus refused to pay UAE prosecutors “blood money” in exchange for leniency, his lawyer has said.
|||Cape Town -
Professor Cyril Karabus refused to pay United Arab Emirates (UAE) prosecutors “blood money” in exchange for leniency, as he believed he had done nothing wrong.
Karabus’s lawyer, Michael Bagraim, made the claim on Tuesday at a Cape Town Press Club event, held at the Wild Fig Restaurant in Observatory, where he had been invited to speak about the case.
Bagraim said that, during the first stages of Karabus’s trial, the prosecutors had tried to offer them a deal.
“They asked us to pay R250 000 blood money and asked Karabus to accept some liability, but he refused the deal and insisted he had done nothing wrong. He has maintained his innocence from the beginning. He will come back to the country with his head held high.”
Bagraim said the case against Karabus in the UAE had scared off many medical practitioners from doing their locums in the country.
“We are seeing withdrawal of medical support in UAE hospitals. People are cancelling their contracts from all around. The UAE has the best hospitals in the world but without the personnel they will run them to the ground. Eventually it will hurt them,” he said.
Bagraim warned people planning to work abroad to familiarise themselves with the legal jurisdictions and the culture of their intended destination.
Bagraim also said the Proteas would be asked to consider not playing their two-match series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, planned for November, in protest against how Karabus was treated in the country.
Meanwhile, Karabus is still waiting for his confiscated passport in the UAE so that he can leave the country. His bail money of R250 000 was returned to him on Tuesday.
At the event Karabus’s wife, Jenifer, said she was feeling better.
“Over the months, I have collapsed mentally. My five children have been wonderful and Bagraim has been my support system,” she said.
“He (Karabus) is cross and short-tempered but he knows there is nothing he can do but to wait... we are just taking it day by day.”
Karabus was arrested on August 18 during a stopover en route to South Africa after attending a family wedding in Canada.
The paediatric oncologist was tried in absentia and convicted of manslaughter and falsifying documents after the death of a three-year-old Yemeni girl he treated for leukaemia in 2002, at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi, where he was working as a locum.
Bagraim said that when Karabus had applied for a Canadian visa it was at first declined without an explanation. “He tried again and the problem seemed to have disappeared.”
He said he and Karabus had spent three weeks debating whether to make his arrest public.
“We told no one. It is embarrassing for a doctor to be arrested for manslaughter and we knew that it was going to damage his career. I thought he would be back home within 10 days but that was not the case.”
Bagraim said similar stories had surfaced since Karabus’s arrest.
nontando.mposo@inl.co.za
zodidi.dano@inl.co.za
Cape Argus