United Arab Emirates authorities have yet to clear administrative issues obstructing doctor Cyril Karabus's return home.
|||Pretoria - United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities have yet to clear administrative issues obstructing South African doctor Cyril Karabus's return home, Deputy International Relations Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim said on Tuesday.
“The only remaining issue of concern is the fact that the administrative arrangements by the UAE authorities are taking very long before he can leave.
“It is anticipated that the process will be finalised before the end of the week,” Ebrahim told reporters in Pretoria.
South Africa had twice expressed distress over the delay to the UAE ambassador.
The UAE envoy had also been handed a demarche, Ebrahim said.
A demarche is an official petition or protest presented through diplomatic channels.
Ebrahim outlined other interventions made by government to facilitate Karabus’s return.
“Extensive consular assistance is being provided to Prof Karabus and his family. Mission staff in Abu Dhabi are regularly visiting and calling Prof Karabus.
“In South Africa the [the department’s] staff are also in regular telephonic contact with his daughter, Dr Sarah Karabus.
All court hearings [in the UAE] were attended by mission staff,” he said.
The 78-year-old paediatric oncologist has been detained in the UAE since August 18, after being sentenced in absentia for the death of a Yemeni girl he treated for leukaemia in 2002.
Karabus was acquitted on March 21, and won an appeal, but his return to South Africa was delayed because he was on the UAE's database as a fugitive from justice.
His bail money of R250,000 was returned to him last week.
On Monday, Karabus’ lawyer Michael Bagraim said Karabus was waiting for final clearance documentation and could leave the UAE on Tuesday afternoon.
“We've got a strong feeling that tomorrow [Tuesday] afternoon he would be on a plane,” Michael Bagraim said on Monday.
Bagraim said that Karabus needed only one, final signature from the UAE's interior department on his final clearance to authorise his departure from the country.
Karabus's passport would be returned to him with this document.
Sapa