Lack of clinical notes angered UAE judge in Karabus case

Abstract

In an ironic twist, the absence of clinical notes sufficient to properly rule on manslaughter and forgery charges brought in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) against 77-year-old veteran Cape Town oncologist Professor Cyril Karabus may have led to his acquittal.
On 6 December the prosecution failed for the second time to produce clinical notes made during the critical two weeks Karabus treated a 3-year-old leukaemia patient at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre (SKMC) in Abu Dhabi in 2002. The veteran specialist, for the first time in the nearly four months since his shock airport arrest, took the stand, telling the judge that the prosecution’s failure to produce the notes amounted to ‘an insult to the ruling Sheikh (Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan) and the court’. The judge reportedly agreed with him and expressed deep dissatisfaction at the ongoing impasse which prevented a court-ordered medical committee from properly reviewing the case.