ACDP Questions International Relations Minister on Karabus detention

MEDIA RELEASE
7 March 2013

ACDP Questions International Relations Minister on Karabus detention
• appreciates Goverment’s efforts to see Prof Karabus return to SA

ACDP Member of Parliament and party spokesperson on International Relations, Cheryllyn Dudley, first put a question to the Minister of International Relations, in September 2012, asking her to intervene urgently on behalf of Professor Cyril Karabus, a South African being detained in Abu Dhabi.

Yesterday in the National Assembly, Dudley followed up by asking Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, “Whether the government has called upon the authorities in Abu Dhabi to immediately return Professor Cyril Karabus to South Africa?”

The Deputy Minister responded by saying that the Minister wrote a letter on 20 December 2012 to her United Arab Emirates (UAE) counterpart expressing South Africa’s concern and requesting the UAE authorities to deal with the case in an expeditious and fair manner.

Deputy Minister Marius Fransman also met with UAE authorities on 3 March and called for the release of Prof. Karabus on humanitarian grounds.

Prof Karabus, who is a retired paediatric oncologist, has been held in the UAE since August when he was arrested while in transit. He had been tried in absentia and convicted of manslaughter and falsifying documents after the death of a three-year-old in 2002 at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre, Abu Dhabi. Karabus was sentenced to three years in jail. His case is set to proceed on March 20.

Dudley asked Deputy Minister Marius Fransman whether the fact that the trial has been postponed once again - for the 17th time– this implies any disregard for the diplomatic intervention made by South Africa and how he interpreted this action which keeps an elderly, innocent and unwell South African professor constrained in a foreign country where he has been kept for over six months now. “How will government proceed with this”, Deputy Minister, “What options are open to us in such a situation?” Dudley said.

Deputy Minister Fransman assured Hon Dudley that government will continue to engage the UAE and that the postponement was linked to the UAE having agreed to South Africa’s request for a medical review committee to sit and look at the documents before the trial. Fransman said there was a sympathy to what South Africa had put forward and he was sure that the humanitarian issues would put the UAE under pressure to comply.

On 18 February 2013, Dudley together with the Karabus family and several members of the public could be seen holding posters calling on the release of Prof Karabus, when they peacefully protested outside the CTICC in Cape Town.

Dudley said yesterday that, “the ACDP appreciates the interventions made by the department, including the sending of a high level official delegation to help find a diplomatic solution”.