DUBAI: A UAE court will next week give its verdict in the trial of a South African doctor charged with manslaughter after a Yemeni girl he treated died in 2002, his lawyer said yesterday.
In 2003, Professor Cyril Karabus had been found guilty of “manslaughter” and “forgery” after the three-year-old girl died at an Abu Dhabi hospital.
He was sentenced in absentia to three years and six months in prison, said his lawyer Michael Bagraim.
Karabus had been unaware of the sentence and he was taken into custody in August last year while in transit at Dubai, Bagraim said.
He was held for nearly two months before being released on bail on condition he does not leave the United Arab Emirates.
The lawyer said his verdict would be delivered on April 29.
Prosecutors in September last year said Karabus did not give the patient a platelet transfusion when she required it, alleging this had caused her death.
Karabus was accused of having forged a document after the girl’s death stating he had given her the transfusion, according to Bagraim.
But laboratory reports later presented to court confirmed the platelets were given.
Karabus was acquitted on March 21 after a medical committee assigned by the court to review his case absolved him of negligence.
Prosecutors however filed and appeal and a new hearing was held on April 9.
His trial has been repeatedly delayed after prosecutors failed on several occasions to present the original medical file after they handed the court a folder from which notes from September 18, 2002, onwards were missing, said Bagraim.
A Facebook page demanding his “immediate release” named “Free Prof. Karabus” has amassed more than 1,600 likes.
AFP
