Doctor is cleared of manslaughter in United Arab Emirates

An appeals court has cleared a South African doctor of manslaughter over the death more than a decade ago of a three-year-old leukaemia patient – a case that caused a diplomatic rift between the two countries.

Cyril Karabus, 78, had been held in the United Arab Emirates since he was arrested in Dubai last August while in transit from Canada to South Africa.

The oncologist said he returned to South Africa after the child’s death in 2002 and was unaware of the charges pending against him, including claims that he failed to give the girl, Sara Adel, who had terminal leukaemia, a crucial blood transfusion when he was working as a locum at Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi.

Mr Karabus claimed he treated the child but she died anyway. A medical committee cleared him of any wrongdoing before the ruling.

The Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National said prosecutors had one month to lodge an appeal against the court’s decision.