Another bid to help Karabus

2013-03-11 11:35

Cyril Karabus (File, Rapport)

Cape Town - Businessman Iqbal Surve is set to travel to the United Arab Emirates to try and help detained emeritus professor Cyril Karabus, it was reported on Monday.

Karabus's local lawyer Michael Bagraim told the Cape Times that Surve had offered his assistance.

"He's offered to intervene in his personal capacity... He promised to speak to individuals he knew," Bagraim said.

Surve heads Sekunjalo Consortium, which recently bought the Independent News and Media group in South Africa.

Karabus is an emeritus professor at the University of Cape Town and specialist paediatric oncologist.

Karabus, 77, was tried and convicted in absentia in the UAE on charges of manslaughter and falsifying documents, following the death of a 3-year-old cancer patient who was under his care at an Abu Dhabi hospital 12 years ago.

He was sentenced, in absentia, to three years in jail.

He was arrested and recharged in Dubai on 18 August, while in transit on his return to South Africa from Toronto, in Canada, where he had attended his son's wedding.

The case is due back in court on 20 March. Karabus is currently out on bail in the UAE, but is not allowed to return to South Africa.

- SAPA