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Baby-death case doctor speaks of prison ordeal

May 23, 2013 13:45
Well-wishers greet Prof Cyril Karabus on his return home to South Africa

By

Sandy Rashty,

Sandy Rashty

1 min read

A doctor imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates on a manslaughter charge has spoken of his joy and relief at being home.

Professor Cyril Karabus, a 78-year-old paediatric oncologist from Cape Town, said it was “fantastic” to be free after a nine-month ordeal in which he had witnessed the effects of beatings and despaired of ever being released.

He was arrested at Dubai Airport in August as he attempted to transfer from a flight from Toronto where he had been celebrating his son’s wedding.

He didn’t know he had been convicted in absentia for the manslaughter of a terminally ill three-year-old Yemini girl he had treated for leukaemia at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi more than a decade earlier.