Doctor is arrested in transit in United Arab Emirates for a 10 year old conviction passed in his absence

Concern is growing for a 78 year old South African paediatrician who has been held in prison in the United Arab Emirates for more than six weeks, after it emerged that he had been tried and convicted in his absence over the death of a child he treated while working as a locum in the country 10 years ago.

Cyril Karabus, a paediatric haematologist and oncologist at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, was arrested on 18 August when his flight home from a family wedding in Canada stopped in Abu Dhabi.

It emerged that he had been convicted in 2003 of manslaughter and falsifying documents, sentenced to 3.5 years in jail, and ordered to pay a fine of around $100 000 (£62 000; €77 000) to the …