07-Sep-14: In Gaza, they're at work on the next war

Residential tower destroyed in Gaza City, August 26, 2014 [Image Source]

While we're under the relatively fresh influence of news reports focused on the devastation in Gaza [BBC video here], on photos of dead children and of their parents and clans-people screaming with agony and anger, and on social action NGOs clamoring for more funds to rebuild and revive, it's good to take a moment to remind ourselves of how the terrorist leadership that has turned Gaza into a vast underground arsenal is selling the events of the past two months - and their plans for the future.

This report by Barak Ravid comes from Haaretz this evening: "Israeli official: Hamas has begun repairing Gaza tunnels":

Israel has received intelligence indicating that Hamas has begun reconstructing the attack tunnels that were destroyed during Operation Protective Edge, a senior Israeli official said on Sunday.
Two weeks have passed since the cease-fire went into effect, the official said, and Hamas has already begun preparing for the next confrontation with Israel and is focused on replenishing its arsenals.
The senior official said that Hamas militants have returned to arms smuggling through several tunnels that remain intact under the Philadelphi Route in Rafah. He said that the smuggling continues despite the Egyptian security forces' more concentrated and effective efforts to stamp out the tunnels.
The official added that production of the M75 rockets – capable of reaching the Gush Dan region in central Israel – has resumed in factories inside the Gaza Strip. He said that even after Operation Protective Edge, 40 percent of Hamas' capability to produce rockets locally remain intact.

A Friday article in the Chcago Sun-Times ["Decimated Hamas makes ludicrous claims"] captures some of the madness in the moment:

While the truce holds, the propaganda war continues. Despite the many funerals, the hospitals filled with the wounded, the loss of hundreds of combatants, and the rubble of collapsed high-rises and other buildings and homes, Hamas ridiculously claims victory. 

Yes, it is ridiculous. Actually it's far worse than that because it is clear to rational onlookers that the absent Hamas political leadership, issuing commands from luxurious hotel suites in Qatar and Dubai, fully intend that as many as possible Palestinian Arab Gazans should die at the hands of the Israelis. Their utter absence of remorse would be breathtaking if we were not already so familiar with it. And tragically - leaving morality and humanity out of things, which is what they do - it has to be said their calculation is right; dead children advance their side's interests.

Over there in Gaza, the Palestinian Arab masses are thoroughly in the grip of victory fever. It even has numbers by which it can be quantified; we posted about this two days ago: "5-Sep-14: A society steeped in the ethos of terror, and the poll results to prove it".

In another part of the Arab world, where there's much more money, they see victory and loss differently. Here's an August 10, 2014 article ["What the world builds, Israel bombs"] from The National, published in the Emirates:

International donors are wary of funding another rebuilding effort in Gaza, with the European Union divided over increasing pressure on Israel for a lasting solution to the Palestinian issue... An international donor meeting for Gaza is to be held in Norway next month. Yet, there is concern about a repeat of the donor conference after the 2008-2009 war, where only a fraction of the nearly $5 billion pledged for rebuilding came through. “We hope to receive help, but promises aren’t always kept here,” said Naji Sarhan, Gaza’s deputy minister of public works. “It’s hard to convince people to come here when they know Israel acts as our agent of destruction.”

Whether viewing Israel as the problem (something of a constant theme in the UAE's media), or seeing the issues as more nuanced and influenced hugely by the terror-addiction of the Hamas leadership, the outcome might be the same. In reality, there is no bottomless well out there of funding available to restore what gets devastated when Hamas takes on Israel. At some point, the emerging middle class in Gaza - the customers of its classy restaurants, the buyers of its luxury vehicles, the owners of its penthouse apartments - may demand to be heard, and to have their interests brought into consideration. Once there is a significant part of Gaza that has something to lose, some interests to protect, the game changes. At that point, declaring victory in the face of utter defeat may get harder to do.

But not yet.

2-Feb-14: In Australia, evidence that Syria's bloodbath is bringing jihad down under

Melburnians old enough to remember when the international airport was located at Essendon might also recall a large advertising sign on Mt Alexander Road which, as we recall it, proclaimed: "Fly Qantas to the World".

The picture of the drinks coaster on the right is the only souvenir we could find on-line of that rather dated commercial message. Growing up in Australia, there really was the sense that Australia was located somewhere just off to the side of the rest of the world, and that from Melbourne and Sydney you needed an airline to get there.

Times have changed. In the Melbourne Age yesterday, a news article ["Al-Qaeda terrorist threat to Australia"] says what observers paying attention to the rising tide of overt sympathy for Islamist jihad will have noted long ago: Australia today faces challenges not so different to those taxing the minds and resources of authorities in Western Europe and Asia. And while the outcome is still uncertain, the results till now are none too encouraging.

The report quotes the US director of national intelligence, James Clapper, who says terrorist organizations connected to Al-Qaeda, already known to be successfully enticing Australians to join the Syrian bloodbath, have established training camps in Syria to provide a basis for terrorist attacks on Australian soil by returning jihadists. Some key points:

• "As many as 200 Australians are believed to have travelled to Syria to help rebels trying to topple dictator Bashar al-Assad." 
• "US intelligence has evidence of ''training complexes'' within Syria ''to train people to go back to their countries and conduct terrorist acts''.
• "About half of the Australians fighting in Syria are believed to be members of Jabhat al-Nusra. Others have joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an even more militant Islamist group with strong ties to al-Qaeda."



A world away from the peaceful Australian
Gold Coast, Amira Karroum was killed
alongside her Muslim husband Yusuf Ali
in Syria [Image Source]

• Australia's counter-terrorism ambassador Bill Fisher shares the assessment. He says that while "the likelihood of an attack like 9/11 in the West has lessened", the threat of "smaller but nonetheless deadly attacks is very real - hitting bars where Westerners congregate overseas, and other soft targets. In this respect, the threat is worse"...

Australia's awareness of how threats like these translate into tragic outcomes took a startling turn upwards when a jihadi terror attack on a tourist spot in Bali, Indonesia in 2002 cost more than two hundred innocent lives, including those of 88 Australians. [See our contribution in the wake of the tragedy: "11-Oct-07: Kuta beach, five years on"].

Since then, there have been reports and video clips of religious calls to violence by Australian Islamic figures [here, here, here among numerous other instances], violent street demonstrations in Sydney [here, here, here and elsewhere], and front-page reports like this January 2014 article entitled "Amira Karroum was one of many Australians being recruited to fight in Syria" about a young Australian woman who seemed so ordinary, so unremarkable, "the unlikeliest terrorist" until - after her violent death - she is revealed to have written to family:

"Everything is temporary... Islam is my identity. The burqa is my shield. Jannah (the Islamic garden of paradise) is my destination.'' [Telegraph, Sydney, January 18, 2014]

A year ago, Qantas - which faces non-trivial commercial challenges - entered into a strategic partnership with Emirates, a highly successful, well funded airline that is wholly owned by the government of Dubai, a monarchy.

Dubai's government has been wholly controlled by the Al Maktoum family since 1833, entirely untroubled by the need for elections. Qantas, the Al Maktoum business partner, now happily channels much of its Europe-bound traffic via Dubai (concerning which, we posted a string of comments in 2012 and 2013 starting with this one). The volume of passenger and freight traffic between the Middle East and Australia has grown accordingly and is likely to keep doing so. This is going to have an impact. As the Dubai-based on-line journal Arabian Business recently noted:

"Dubai controls strategic trade routes in the world and also more than 65 terminals across the world, including new developments underway in India, Africa, Europe and South America. What this means is, Dubai can influence global trade through these particular ports and have controls over them... Once they implement this and once Dubai starts implementing this in relation to its own trade, what you will see is the beginning of Islamisation that is led by Dubai.” [Arabian Business, October 2, 2013]

Concerns about a Dubai role in the funding of terror get occasional media attention, like this January 2010 piece from The Guardian, "Dubai's dark side targeted by international finance police":

"Fears are intensifying that the emirate has become a global centre for terror funding, money-laundering, drug money and mafia cash..." [The Guardian]

Significant changes have clearly overcome once-isolated Australia's place in the world in the past decade or two. So the notion that religiously motivated terrorists - jihadis - are eyeing far-away places like Australia ought not to be a surprise to anyone. The reality is that neither distant Australia nor anywhere else on earth is far enough away from "the world" to be insulated from the threats that the loathsome jihadists embody.

The warning that hardened Islamist fighters, energized by what they may have seen or done in the slaughter-house that Syria has become, are returning to hospitable Australia with mayhem on their minds ought to continue to get serious attention.

15-Jun-13: Attention Qantas travelers: A pungent follow-up here to our earlier posts about Emirates, Qantas and Dubai

Click for our earlier posts about Emirates/Qantas
"The World's Leading Airline Partnership" 

In the course of more than thirty posts starting in September 2012, we reflected in this blog on the infuriating saga of Prof. Cyril Karabus and what we termed his Kafka-esque treatment in Dubai at the hands of the United Arab Emirates authorities.

(Click here to see our earlier posts about Emirates/Qantas, "The World's Leading Airline Partnership".)

In the course of analyzing what was being done to him, we noted time and again how Australia's Qantas airline has very recently blended a large part of its operations into the Dubai-based Emirates Airlines. And we warned of what travelers availing themselves of the Emirates/Qantas hookup might encounter in light of the Karabus affair.

Fortunately Prof. Karabus is safely home and we have discontinued our focus on him and his ordeal. But today he is interviewed in Haaretz, and we feel this ought to be more widely disseminated.

Without further ado, here is a direct quote, from "Caught in a Kafka-esque ordeal in Dubai, a South African doctor finally comes home":

...Much of Karabus’s palpable anger is directed at Emirates Airways. He says that just before leaving Canada he was told by airline personnel that there seemed to be a problem with his ticket – some official query from Dubai about him. “I asked what it was and asked them to investigate – and they assured me that it had been resolved. But they knew, they knew, oh yes, that the police were looking for me – and they let me go ahead and fly straight into a trap. What does that mean?” asks Karabus furiously. “It means that the Emirates Airways is an arm of the UAE law enforcement agency. What kind of crap is that?” Various newspapers, notably the Johannesburg Sunday Times, approached Emirates Airways both locally and at its head office to respond to Karabus' accusations. The company said it had nothing to do with Karabus' situation and refused to comment further. [Haaretz]

You can see some of our earlier notes about the implications of an Emirates tie-up for people who, like us, admire Qantas and enjoy flying it but sense something seriously worrying has happened, here.

(No response came to us from either Qantas or Emirates during the nine months of our coverage.)

1-May-13: The Emirates continue to educate the world on how decent people can expect to be treated under their system of law and order

The head of the UAE began a visit to the UK today [Image Source]

There continue to be more questions than answers today in the ongoing travesty of justice suffered in the United Arab Emirates by the distinguished 78 year old paediatric oncologist, Prof. Cyril Karabus, a South African about whom we have been writing here [examples] with rising anger since August 2012:

Cape Town doctor Cyril Karabus will again try on Wednesday to get his passport back from United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities. The elderly pediatric oncologist is still stuck in the UAE after two Abu Dhabi courts found him not guilty of manslaughter in connection with the death of a young cancer patient he treated more than a decade ago. For a second day in a row, Karabus has been unable to get his passport. His son, Michael Karabus, said it was now a waiting game. “There’s never been any doubt that this will all end, but there’s always been a doubt as to when that would be.” Michael said his father remains confident he will be home within the next few days. Karabus will return to an Abu Dhabi Court on Wednesday to try and get his ticket home.  [SA Eyewitness News, today]

This brief South African news report could - but did not - have said much more, such as that Karabus has been detained against his will in the United Arab Emirates since August 18, 2012 in the following circumstances:

• He had been convicted and sentenced in absentia during 2004 (and ordered to pay what the Sharia law system of the UAE unabashedly calls blood money, as well as serve time in prison) over the death of a terminally-ill child from Yemen whom he treated for leukaemia in 2002. He was a contract doctor at the time, working in a rich UAE hospital for a short period in order to supplement his meager SA government salary and pension.
• Did we say in absentia? He was in fact never told of either the charges or the 'conviction' until...
• Nine months ago, when he and his family were transiting through Dubai airport as passengers on Emirates. According to news reports, the airline has been strikingly unhelpful since the start of the Karabus nightmare.
• His 'trial' in a UAE court was adjourned more than twenty times, and as far as we can tell from reports, never really happened in the conventional sense. Among numerous problems, the prosecution lacked, or was unwilling to produce, key evidentiary documents right up until the end.
• From a criminal law standpoint, the key issues were medical and technical and far beyond the competence of the judge/s. 
• So to address that aspect, the Abu Dhabi court in charge of hearing the matter eventually appointed a committee of doctors. That committee appointed a sub-committee and they took many weeks, and several missed hearing dates, before deciding that Karabus had no culpability.
• The court therefore acquitted Prof. Karabus of all charges on March 21, 2013.
• The sordid matter ought to have ended there and the man allowed to finally go home. But the authorities in that thoroughly non-democratic corner of the world continued to hold onto his passport and instructed the people at the airport to refuse him the right to depart.
• Then the prosecution appealed against the acquittal.
• On what grounds? If there were any (in our uninformed view there were none), they have never been given any publicity anywhere, and the lawyers representing poor Prof. Karabus never received them. Since the conviction in absentia was erased because of a finding of fact, it's rather difficult to see what possible grounds for appeal there might be.
• That appeal was due to be heard, and then not heard, and then terminated on April 24, 2013 with a surprising announcement (five days ahead of the scheduled date) that the prosecution's appeal was dismissed, the charges were unproven, the conviction was overturned and the accused was free - technically.

But this is the United Arab Emirates, and the farce goes on. Although Prof. Karabus' ordeal formally ended with the dismissal of the prosecution's "appeal", he remains a prisoner of the UAE government, stuck and unable to get on a plane and go home so long as his passport remains confiscated. He tried to get it yesterday and the day before, and is said to have been left "drained" by his failure.

Meanwhile those for whom the plight of a retired professional whose lifelong career was devoted to saving the lives of ill children is of little to no importance, might be interested to know that in far-away London, there was a major outbreak of pomp and circumstance yesterday. Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the unelected President of the United Arab Emirates and unelected emir of Abu Dhabi arrived for a two day official visit to the UK. His entourage includes the unelected Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs; the unelected Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Presidential Affairs; the unelected Sheikh Hamad bin Zayed, Chief of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court; and the unelected Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of Development and International Co-operation.

We are unable to find a single mention of Prof. Karabus' ongoing pursuit of his passport and his freedom in any of the Emirate newspapers today. On the other hand, a major British paper covers a little-reported aspect of His Highness' state visit to the British capital in an article entitled "Why is Britain rolling out the red carpet for the UAE's Sheikh Khalifa?". An excerpt:

"A lot of the British public may already find it hard to stomach seeing the royal treatment given to the undemocratic leader of a country where the police torture prisoners and trials are a “mockery of justice”.  That we are doing so even when it is our fellow Brits on the receiving end of the electric baton will be seen as an act which abandons not only our principles, but also our responsibilities to our own citizens. If anything positive is to come out of what is shaping up to be one of the more sordid state visits of recent years, torture and fair trial issues – and in particular the cases of the three British tourists – must be at the centre of every discussion at every level between Britain and the UAE" [The Statesman, April 27, 2013]

As we wrote in the introduction, more questions than answers.

12-Apr-13: Karabus: Some long overdue major international media attention on the Emirates

Good to see the front page of this morning's International Herald Tribune, the international edition of the New York Times, giving some factual attention to the appalling treatment of Prof. Cyril Karabus at the hands of the authorities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Not that there is any expectation of them adjusting their opaque, undemocratic and legally-dysfunctional approach to his improper incarceration, but arousing public opinion by shining some bright light on this little-publicized Emirates scandal can't be a bad thing. That's about the only remaining strategy when authoritarian regimes in dark, press-controlled corners of the Third World engage in their capricious ways with innocent people's freedom.

The New York Times version of the same article which will also appear in Friday's paper edition is headlined "Emirates’ Laws Trap a Doctor Just Passing Through". 

We have written again and again (most recently in "9-Apr-13: Justice, United Arab Emirates style: The outrageous saga continues") on the Emirates/Karabus scandal. It stands for something more than 'merely' a disgraceful example of unchecked absolute power being applied wrongly and unfairly on a powerless victim (endemic in this part of the world). The unlawful actions of the 'authorities' in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, and the benign way the world's media generally treat them, are part of a much larger issue that affects many more people and not only those who unwittingly visit the UAE. 

You can see some of our earlier comments in a March post of ours [28-Mar-13: He is acquitted but Prof. Karabus "has no choice but to submit"] and via the links embedded in that and earlier This Ongoing War posts. 

Just one more word of a practical nature: we wrote a few days ago that health professionals attracted by the shine and glitz of Dubai and Abu Dhabi and by jobs promoted on sites likethis, this, this and this should be warned ahead of time about just how different the UAE and its authoritarian regimes are from the world they know.

28-Mar-13: He is acquitted but Prof. Karabus "has no choice but to submit"

South African newspapers have been reporting for some days that Prof. Cyril Karabus, 77, whose involuntary detention by the people who run the United Arab Emirates has been going on now for seven months in defiance of basic principles of due process, has been cleared, acquitted, found not guilty, freed to go home and so on. The spokesperson for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Co-operation broadcast a tweet a week ago exulting (after the earlier intervention of the department's minister) that "He is free!"

So here's today's news. The source is South Africa's Eyewitness News website:

CAPE TOWN - Prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have told Professor Cyril Karabus’ legal team they intend appealing the decision to find him not guilty of manslaughter. Last week, an Abu Dhabi court found the elderly professor not guilty of manslaughter and forgery. A medical committee cleared the paediatric oncologist of all blame for the death of a young cancer patient he treated there more than a decade ago. The latest development means Karabus will remain in the UAE indefinitely...

We have not yet seen any reports originating in the UAE that confirm this, but we will keep looking. And if there is anyone out there still thinking the man's own government is willing to do what ought to be done, think again:

"Professor Cyril Karabus has no choice but to submit to the UAE's legal process, the dept of international relations said on Thursday, after it emerged that he will not be allowed to come back to South Africa yet." [SAPA]

We have posted numerous times here about the Kafkaesque ordeal that this distinguished medico has suffered at the hands of the authorities in the UAE. For a quick overview, we suggest these: "21-Mar-13: Is Prof Karabus finally being released and going home?"; and "29-Jan-13: UAE "Justice" officials fiddle: The scandalous treatment of Prof. Karabus goes on and on".

May we suggest again that anyone planning to travel to or through Dubai should carefully review what we posted here yesterday? See "27-Mar-13: Final call for Australian travelers to London with Qantas". And for the record, the advice is not meant only for Australians.

This outrageous affair is barely known outside South Africa. It's time to change that.

27-Mar-13: Final call for Australian travelers to London with Qantas

"UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum inspects headquarters of Dubai Police, February 15, 2011. Greeting him is Commander General of Dubai Police Lt. General His Excellency Dahi Khalfan Tamim, senior officers and a group of children bearing flowers." [Image Source: His Highness' personal website]

Professor Cyril Karabus, whose Kafkaesque imprisonment (on charges of murder and forgery) without trial in the UAE began in August 2012 is now said to be adjudged innocent according to reports in the past few days. Despite this, as of today, the 77 year-old retired paediatric oncologist has yet to receive back his passport from the authorities in Abu Dhabi, is therefore still unable to leave the UAE, and cannot yet fly home to South Africa. 

We will hold off on further analysis of what has been done to him until he is safely out of the UAE.

Meanwhile, Australia's airline QANTAS received approval today from Australia's competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, to form an alliance with the UAE airline, Emirates. Qantas is going to use Dubai rather than Singapore as its stopover point for Qantas flights to London. The first of those Qantas flights to London via Dubai is due to depart this Sunday. It's a deal that was signed in September 2012; the commission's approval arrived with mere days to spare. 

It's said to be economically vital to the future of Qantas, as its chief executive has taken pains to explain over and again; the injection of United Arab Emirates cash and facilities are key to Qantas's efforts to return to profitability. But note that although the agreement between the airlines is for a term of ten years, in the end they received regulatory approval for only five. The deal will have to pass another round of review in 2018. Meanwhile, what will be, will be.

Media coverage of the Qantas/Emirates alliance offers subtle but significant hints as to the cultural differences between the Emirates and the west. Reuters reporting from Sydney points out that in addition to ACCC cutting the "the desired alliance timeframe" in half (to 5 years), it determined that the deal would produce "material, but not substantial" public benefits. No sign of that hesitation appears in the comprehensive report appearing in the Abu Dhabi newspaper, The National, today.

As friends keep telling us, Dubai has a name for being all business, shopping and luxury, with everything else - politics, religion, social conventions - taking a back seat. Does this make Dubai, or any other part of the entirely-undemocratic UAE, some kind of gold-plated laissez-faire paradise? Hardly. People who get on the wrong side of those in charge in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other corners of the UAE have very few of the options or rights to due process that westerners take for granted. 

The U.S. State Department said in a 2010 report that Dubai's constitution "guarantees an independent judiciary", in reality it is the "political leadership” that makes decisions and "defendants can spend months without being charged and are often unfairly denied bail."

What else should travelers know about going there? Quite a lot, actually. A startling article by Robert Upe, a travel and tourism writer, in the Melbourne Age/Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, provides some practical guidance. It's called "Don't kiss, don't swear: rules of a Dubai stopover", and its timing is driven by the start of the Qantas romance with the desert airline. And for the record, the threats go way beyond kissing and swearing. 

Some highlights of the Dubai/UAE experience:

Dubai metro: "Don't take offence, don't continue to try
and sort something out, simply hand it over to a male
colleague... The fact that he is male will make all the difference.'' [Image Source]

• Australia's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warns on its website that de facto relationships, homosexual relationships and acts of adultery and prostitution are subject to severe punishment.
• It is an offence "to share the same hotel room with someone of the opposite sex to whom you are not married or closely related".
• In a tortuous circumlocution, DFAT warns that "Australian travellers of Jewish background who are Israeli passport holders" are allowed to pass through Dubai. But leaving the airport is strictly verboten. This is because the UAE is an active participant in "the Arab League boycott of Israel". That boycott is itself illegal in several parts of the world; the US government's Office of Antiboycott Compliance (part of the U.S. Department of Commerce) keeps a watchful eye out for businesses that quietly, but illegally, go along with the Arab league's efforts. And for the record, the boycott was created to deter Jewish immigration into what is now the State of Israel long before the state was proclaimed in the wake of a UN decision in 1947. The Arab League formalized the boycott right after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War when there were zero (so-called) occupied territories and no security barrier. The UAE's continuing compliance with the boycott is an egregious reminder of how much nonsense is used to justify anti-Israel and anti-Jewish activities in so many quarters.
• "Cultural misdemeanours", meaning holding hands in public, swearing, harassing women with a prolonged stare, wearing inappropriate clothing, may result in imprisonment or judicial fines.
• Qantas says Jewish and Israeli passengers will be safe transiting through Dubai as long as they don't plan of stepping outside the building. But then what happens "in the event of a catastrophe or severe weather when airport hotels are full?'', asks Radha Stirling of the non-profit Detained in Dubai organization. Operating under the mantra "Detained in Dubai exists to free people from the chains of injustice", the group helps people in "legal difficulty" in the United Arab Emirates. Qantas travelers might want to write its phone number inside their passports just in case. No, on reflection, it might be better to put somewhere safer than that. The number of their London office is +44 7050 686 745
• Detained in Dubai points out that getting into serious trouble in Dubai/UAE is easy: ''Just one person needs to take offence and to make a complaint and you can be in serious trouble and be held in custody for a long time if you challenge the charge."
• Drinking in public "can land travellers in strife", says Upe. 
• Qantas has been putting its staff through what the article calls "cultural training". The key take-away: "Customer issues with UAE passengers may be best solved by a man. Don't take offence, don't continue to try and sort something out, simply hand it over to a male colleague. It doesn't matter whether you are the manager or supervisor, the fact that he is male will make all the difference.''
• And if you don't do well with that whole 'cultural training' aspect? So here are a few outcomes mentioned in the article that travelers might want to think about: A British couple were jailed for three months in 2008 after having drunken sex on a public beach. A different British couple were arrested in 2010 and sentenced to a month in jail for kissing in public in Dubai. In 2009, an Australian man was arrested for allegedly saying “What the f---?” to a plainclothes police officer who grabbed his arm at Dubai Airport. He was forced to remain in Dubai for months before being let go with a fine.
• The Age/SMH article offers the following helpful guidelines that originate with Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. Offensive language, spitting, aggressive behaviour and smoking outside designated areas are not tolerated. Public displays of affection such as holding hands or kissing are not tolerated. Men should avoid staring at local women or attempting to make eye contact. During Ramadan while Muslims are fasting from dawn to dusk, non-Muslims can only eat  and drink in screened-off areas in many hotels and restaurants.

Finally, bear in mind that when the senior Hamas figure, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was assassinated under murky and still unresolved circumstances in February 2010, he was free to enter, move around and base himself in Dubai without any evident concern about security or legal matters. Notwithstanding the sharp focus on making money, Dubai appears to set no great barriers in the path of active terrorists. How consistent or conflicting this is with the guidelines above is a matter that readers, especially those who are eligible to enter the place (unlike us), may want to ponder.

21-Mar-13: Is Prof Karabus finally being released and going home?

Under the headline "Cyril Karabus is a free man", a South African website, Eyewitness News, reported earlier today on the latest stages in an affair that we have followed with rising [deleted] from its start some seven long months ago. But read it through to the end to understand about some issues that may yet have to be resolved.

CAPE TOWN - South African doctor Cyril Karabus is now officially a free man and can return home. An Abu Dhabi court on Thursday morning found the 77-year-old paediatric oncologist not guilty of manslaughter and forgery charges. This week a medical review committee in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) found Karabus was not to blame for the death of a young cancer patient he treated there over a decade ago. He was arrested in August while travelling from Canada to South Africa. UAE officials arrested him while in transit at a Dubai airport. He was convicted in absentia for manslaughter and forgery in the UAE. He was detained in Abu Dhabi for several months. The International Relations Department’s Clayson Monyela said: “The South African government is pleased to announce that Professor Karabus has been found not guilty by the court in the UAE. This follows the report of the medical review committee that has cleared him of any wrong doing.” It could still take up to a week before he returns home. However, Karabus’ lawyer Michael Bagraim said they still have one or two problems to sort out. “The prosecution can in terms of their law appeal and they have two weeks in which to lodge that appeal and the problem is while they’re waiting to decide if they want to do that, we can’t get the passport back.” Bagraim said he has asked South Africa’s deputy international relations minister to put pressure on the UAE to immediately release the professor’s passport.

We will refrain from all further commentary until... you know what we mean.

27-Feb-13: This is what falling into the clutches of a non-democratic political entity run on non-transparent principles can do to people

Prof. Cyril Karabus, held without trial by the "authorities" in the UAE for more than six months

For readers who have been following the horror of the United Arab Emirates' treatment of the frail retired South African paediatric oncologist Prof. Cyril Karabus, here is today's installment of the ongoing disgrace.

UAE panel yet to send report in South African doctor's manslaughter case

Haneen Dajani | The National | Feb 27, 2013 |  ABU DHABI // The medical committee examining the case of the South African doctor accused of manslaughter has not sent its report yet, the criminal court has announced. Cyril Karabus, 77, was convicted in absentia of murder and forgery, accused of causing the death in 2002 of a three-year-old Yemeni girl suffering cancer. His retrial on charges of manslaughter and forgery has been stranded in court for months awaiting the medical committee’s report, as well as a medical file requested by the defence. The paediatric oncologist, who denies the charge, has been on bail with his passport confiscated since October. He was arrested at Dubai airport in August while travelling with his family. Last month South Africa sent a démarche – a strong protest – to the UAE Government calling for the case against Karabus to be expedited. The case was adjourned until March 20 pending the committee’s report.

There will be plenty of time to drag the princelings of the oil-soaked UAE and their minions through the global court of public opinion at some appropriate time in the future. But right now, today, who is going to get this poor, unjustly detained man out of their clutches?

Some selected background for those new to this sickening and grossly under-reported affair:

• 26-Sep-12: Dubai, Dubai, Dubai
• 15-Oct-12: Back to Dubai: Australian travelers might want to factor this report into their plans
• 21-Oct-12: Update on Prof. Cyril Karabus and his ongoing nightmare in United Arab Emirates
• 5-Nov-12: Travel update: Additional things you might want to know about transiting through Dubai
• 13-Dec-12: Kafka would certainly be proud: Update on the doctor arrested at Dubai airport
• 25-Dec-12: The Emirates scandal: the missing evidence turns up
• 1-Jan-13: Prof. Cyril Karabus faces his thirteenth hearing in a United Arab Emirates court tomorrow
• 2-Jan-13: For readers concerned with what is still being done to a distinguished healer of children with cancer
• 7-Jan-13 [UPDATED]: Karabus affair: UAE attorney-general "failed to turn up"
• 29-Jan-13: A development in the scandalous UAE 'prosecution' of Prof. Karabus
• 29-Jan-13: UAE "Justice" officials fiddle: The scandalous treatment of Prof. Karabus goes on and on
• 31-Jan-13: UAE's foreign ministry is "closely following" Prof. Karabus' nightmare 
• 6-Feb-13: At the United Arab Emirates foreign ministry, they want you to know their hands are tied

Is anyone from Qantas, the great Australian airline, monitoring what has been happening to this innocent traveler who had the misfortune to pass through glitzy Dubai and its airport while a passenger on Emirates?

6-Feb-13: At the United Arab Emirates foreign ministry, they want you to know their hands are tied

The updated Karabus page on the UAE foreign ministry website

Here's an update to our posting of a week ago ["31-Jan-13: UAE's foreign ministry is "closely following" Prof. Karabus' nightmare"] about how the diplomats of Dubai and Abu Dhabi are seeking to soft pedal the disgraceful treatment being meted out as we speak to the distinguished retired South African doctor, Prof. Cyril Karabus. [For links to the background - see the end of this post.]

Visitors to the UAE foreign ministry website will have seen a short, even terse, statement about Prof. Karabus' case, highlighting the offences with which he is charged in relation to a three year old patient: "failing to give her a blood transfusion" and "forging a medical report". There's little there of an informative nature other than the headline which may leave some readers wondering what sort of "closely following" the UAE's diplomats are doing if they fail to take account of the long list of deeply disturbing aspects of the Karabus case we mentioned in our post.

Readers who go back to the UAE foreign ministry's website now will see a longer treatment of the Karabus case. Under the identical headline, they have added words and sentences but neither insight nor honesty; it's just self-justification of a kind that many will find distasteful. The key addition is this specious argument:

As is the case in South Africa, the judicial process in the United Arab Emirates is independently and wholly overseen and managed by the Federal Supreme Court.  The Government of the United Arab Emirates cannot and does not interfere in the independent judicial process. 
The UAE Constitution states that: “All persons are equal before the law, without distinction between citizens of the Federation in regard to race, nationality, religious belief and social status”.  Professor Karabus will be tried on this basis and in accordance with international standards. 
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UAE will continue to keep South African Authorities up to date with developments regarding this matter
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs understands the difficulties involved for the family of any person who is on trial, especially when a trial is taking place in a country that is not their own. However, it is imperative that the proper judicial process is followed. 

We think the double-talking and hypocrisy of these foreign office apologetics speak far more eloquently than the pseudo-diplomatic tone. 

The frail 77 year-old doctor who was originally prosecuted in his absence without ever being notified of the charges or afterwards of the conviction, has been a prisoner of the UAE since August 2012. The prosecutors have still not produced the evidence file and his case has been adjourned without a substantive hearing 16 times. 

The crushing injustice of the Karabus case shines a harsh light on how life is lived in those oil-and-money-drenched corners of the world where democracy, open government and legal due process are far-off and foreign notions. In the UAE, you can get your hands on most things that money can buy. But that has never included justice or decency, not even in their bursting-at-the-seams duty-free shops.

Some of our previous posts about this painful subject for your further reading:

• 26-Sep-12: Dubai, Dubai, Dubai
• 15-Oct-12: Back to Dubai: Australian travelers might want to factor this report into their plans
• 21-Oct-12: Update on Prof. Cyril Karabus and his ongoing nightmare in United Arab Emirates
• 5-Nov-12: Travel update: Additional things you might want to know about transiting through Dubai
• 13-Dec-12: Kafka would certainly be proud: Update on the doctor arrested at Dubai airport
• 25-Dec-12: The Emirates scandal: the missing evidence turns up
• 1-Jan-13: Prof. Cyril Karabus faces his thirteenth hearing in a United Arab Emirates court tomorrow
• 2-Jan-13: For readers concerned with what is still being done to a distinguished healer of children with cancer
• 7-Jan-13 [UPDATED]: Karabus affair: UAE attorney-general "failed to turn up"
• 29-Jan-13: A development in the scandalous UAE 'prosecution' of Prof. Karabus
• 29-Jan-13: UAE "Justice" officials fiddle: The scandalous treatment of Prof. Karabus goes on and on
• 31-Jan-13: UAE's foreign ministry is "closely following" Prof. Karabus' nightmare 

31-Jan-13: UAE's foreign ministry is "closely following" Prof. Karabus' nightmare

A question:

Have you noticed how it is that when you personally know something about an event or a person, and then that event or person is written up in a newspaper article or a TV program, and you read it or watch it, and you sit there pretty much amazed that the people at the newspaper or TV program have misconstrued or completely misrepresented the facts and turned the thing that you know entirely on its head and gotten really important parts wrong or failed to say things that are so important that without telling them the whole narrative makes no sense?

Yes, so have we. Again and again.

Why do we ask?

First, because we know from checking our visitors' log that there are many South Africans (but not so many from Dubai and Abu Dhabi) who have been reading our blog in recent weeks to get updated on the scandalous way in which the distinguished paediatric oncologist, Prof. Cyril Karabus from Capetown, is being treated by the justice and law enforcement officials in the United Arab Emirates where he has been held prisoner since August.

And since they (and our regular readers) know something about the outrageous treatment to which this frail 78 year old with a decades-long history of saving children's lives has been subjected, we want them to see the way in which the UAE's government - in perhaps the first public indication that it holds a viewpoint on the Karabus scandal - recounts what has been happening.

So here's our point.

If you go to the website of the foreign ministry of the United Arab Emirates right now [here it is], you will see the following report which appears, as well, on the ministry's home page as part of a series of revolving stories right at the top. (In other words, for some reason they really want people to know what we are about to show you.)

Here's the full and unedited text:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is closely following the case of the South African oncologist | 30 January 2013 | The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is closely following the case of Professor Cyril Karabus, the South African oncologist accused of causing a young girl’s death by failing to give her a blood transfusion whilst undergoing treatment at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.
Professor Karabus is also accused of forging a medical report. Professor Karabus was originally tried in absentia in 2004 and found guilty.
Following his arrest that original ruling was overturned in order that he stand trial in person.

Seems like a fair enough representation of reality, right?

No, it's not.

The people at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who are closely following this could have mentioned but did not that Prof. Karabus had never been informed of any criminal charges laid against him, had therefore never been given an opportunity to defend his good name and was never informed that a UAE sharia court had  convicted him on charges of forgery (forgery!) and offences connected with the death of a three-year-old terminally ill patient from Yemen back in the year 2000.

Flying back home to South Africa after his son's wedding in Canada in August 2013, he was taken from the transit lounge at Dubai airport by UAE police to a notorious prison and locked up there for eight weeks. He made multiple applications for bail and was refused multiple times until it was granted eight weeks after his arrest. His passport remains with the law enforcement officials of the UAE so that they can ensure the pensioner with a heart pacemaker cannot easily flee.

He remains a prisoner of the UAE until today. The court that has control of his criminal trial has adjourned the matter 16 times so far. Instead of letting him go home on the basis that the prosecution has been completely unable to prove its case against him or show him the medical file on the basis of which the charges were presented, he was informed two days ago [see our report] that this Kafkaesque nightmare goes on, and the next hearing,  postponed yet again, is set for February 27.

The details of this intersection between a decent and heroic man's life and the law and order system of the United Arab Emirates could - and surely will - fill books, magazine articles and television programs once he is out and free.

Meanwhile, even before he is set free, we feel a moral obligation to highlight several aspects of this shocking affair in the hope that there will be an uproar against the people responsible.

1. The British Medical Association published an angry letter of protest dated December 14, 2012 and sent to the Minister of Justice in Abu Dhabi. The full text is here. It ends with this demand: "As the prosecution is unable to present any substantive evidence against Prof Karabus, he should be released from effective detention immediately and all charges dropped. In our view continuing effectively to detain Prof Karabus in these circumstances amounts to a fundamental violation of Prof Karabus’ human rights, and any trial in these circumstances will fail to meet international standards of fairness and would lead to widespread condemnation."
2. A published advice [here] from the South African Medical Association (SAMA) reminds medical professionals that the UAE is 'heavily dependent' on foreign doctors to support its healthcare system. The ongoing incarceration of the distinguished Prof. Karabus is a reminder to its members to 'think carefully' before working in the UAE. SAMA suggested a global professional boycott of countries "which treat health professionals in such a manner". 
3. Qantas, Australia's international airline, is about to merge a significant part of its global operations with Emirates, a UAE airline. Australians transiting through Dubai in the future, en route to Europe and London ought to know something about the risks they face, as exemplified by the nightmare inflicted on Prof. Karabus. If it can happen to a man in his late seventies in poor health and with his proud achievements, it can certainly happen to the rest of us.
4. As we mentioned in a previous posting, a South African publication called The Daily Maverick reported back in November that the Karabus family had asked Emirates, the UAE airline, to consider funding tickets for them to travel to Prof. Karabus in Abu Dhabi as a goodwill gesture and to make it a little easier for them to give him the support he needs. Emirates declined, saying: “This is a legal issue being dealt with by the relevant authorities and does not involve Emirates.” It's a point that Qantas passengers and management might want to take on board and ponder.

If anyone from, or on behalf of, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates has looked closely into these aspects too, and has an opinion they are willing to share with us, we will be glad to provide them with a global platform right here.

Some of our previous posts about this painful subject for your further reading:

26-Sep-12: Dubai, Dubai, Dubai

15-Oct-12: Back to Dubai: Australian travelers might want to factor this report into their plans

21-Oct-12: Update on Prof. Cyril Karabus and his ongoing nightmare in United Arab Emirates

5-Nov-12: Travel update: Additional things you might want to know about transiting through Dubai

13-Dec-12: Kafka would certainly be proud: Update on the doctor arrested at Dubai airport

25-Dec-12: The Emirates scandal: the missing evidence turns up

1-Jan-13: Prof. Cyril Karabus faces his thirteenth hearing in a United Arab Emirates court tomorrow

2-Jan-13: For readers concerned with what is still being done to a distinguished healer of children with cancer

7-Jan-13 [UPDATED]: Karabus affair: UAE attorney-general "failed to turn up"

29-Jan-13: A development in the scandalous UAE 'prosecution' of Prof. Karabus

29-Jan-13: UAE "Justice" officials fiddle: The scandalous treatment of Prof. Karabus goes on and on

29-Jan-13: UAE "Justice" officials fiddle: The scandalous treatment of Prof. Karabus goes on and on

Sheikh Khalifa Medical Center (now called Sheikh Khalifa Medical City): [Image Source]
Is this where the critically important medical file got "lost"?

Since the post we put up earlier today, there have been further developments today in the scandalous ordeal being inflicted on the distinguished medical figure, Prof. Cyril Karabus. For those new to this, we laid out some of the background in an earlier posting: see "24-Jan-13: Time for the United Arab Emirates to know the world is watching". There is also a useful report in the current issue of the South African Medical Journal.

Here in full is today's update from a UAE-based newspaper called "The National":

UAE medical panel issues response in doctor's manslaughter trial

The National (UAE) | Haneen Dajani | Jan 29, 2013         ABU DHABI The case of the South African doctor accused of the manslaughter of a three-year-old girl more than 10 years ago returned to court today as a medical committee finally issued a response. For months the Criminal Court awaited the response of the specialised committee after Sheikh Khalifa Medical City continually failed to provide the case file of the Yemeni girl who Cyril Karabus, 77, is accused of failing to give a blood transfusion to in 2002. The paediatric oncologist, who denies the charge, has been on bail with his passport confiscated since he was arrested at Dubai airport while travelling with his family. After the Criminal Court all but gave up on witnessing any proceedings earlier this month, it removed the case from the court's roll and bounced it back to prosecutors, who also failed to produce the case file essential for the professor's defence, to either present the missing evidence or dismiss the case. The medical committee's letter to court said it has referred the case to a branch committee, which is currently looking into matters. The case was adjourned until February 27 for the branch committee's report.

Months of unconscionable delay in a matter that screams 'injustice' and the so-called 'specialized medical committee' finally decides... to send the matter to a sub-committee and report back in a month. It's simply unbelievable.

It is also astonishing that Prof. Karabus' plight continues in the way that it has. To say it's a disgrace to the lawyers, justice officials and medical establishment of the United Arab Emirates is to put things far too mildly. But expressing the outrage that is appropriate, given the facts, may cause harm to the innocent defendant and his family.

Prof. Karabus has spent more than five months as a prisoner of the UAE, first for eight long weeks in a notorious prison after he was arrested at the glitzy international transit lounge in Dubai airport in August, and then while "free" on bail minus the passport that was seized from him. Local reports have reported that he was brought before the judge in chains in at least the earlier court sessions.

Not only has there been no trial so far, or even an indication that one is on the way. He has also been the victim of misleading reporting by the UAE media establishment who say - as today's news article above does - that the documents that are missing (the "case file") are "essential for the professor's defence".

A larger version of this image accompanied an earlier post 
of ours that highlights the major role Emirates - meaning
the airline, the place and the statelet - are going
to play in the lives of Australians

We are both lawyers and we think that's a misleading way of looking at it. But you don't have to be possessed of a legal education to know that a criminal prosecution cannot proceed if the evidence is "missing".

The UAE authorities have pathetically said for months that sadly they "cannot find" the medical file on the basis of which the criminal case is based. So while Prof. Karabus' UAE defence lawyers might benefit from the "missing file" turning up (reports weeks ago - click for an example - said they already have a copy of the contents and that it confirms his innocence), how can it be that the "justice" officials were not thrown out of the court months ago for (a) arresting a man without evidence to make their case; (b) depriving him of his liberty in a country through which he was transiting as an international passenger of Emirates, the soon-to-be-partner of Qantas; and (c) then failing 16 times (that's the number of "hearings" that have taken place including today's) to show their evidence to the court and to the defence lawyers?

By the way, as we keep asking, is anyone from Qantas paying attention? Are Australian travelers aware of what awaits them when the Qantas/Emirates partnership starts flying? 

An item in the South African Medical Journal quotes an African organization that

expressed ‘astonishment’ that the Emirates airline failed to warn Karabus that he was wanted in the UAE and called on all travellers ‘who share our abhorrence for the UAE’s justice system to stop flying Emirates and to not visit the UAE’.

As we mentioned in a previous posting, a South  African publication called The Daily Maverick reported back in November that the Karabus family had 

asked Emirates if it would consider funding tickets for them to visit Karabus in Abu Dhabi as a goodwill gesture, but it declined. When the Daily Maverick approached Emirates Airline for comment, it was told: “This is a legal issue being dealt with by the relevant authorities and does not involve Emirates.”

That's another little point that Qantas passengers and management might want to take on board.

Though we fully understand the significance of the UAE's phenomenal oil wealth and the massive advertising budgets of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Emirates Airlines and the UAE, where are the penetrating questions from Australian journalists and media channels? Where are the global human rights lawyers? Where is the outrage? 

29-Jan-13: A development in the scandalous UAE 'prosecution' of Prof. Karabus

The UAE Ministry of Justice website

From a South African news source this morning:

The professor’s Cape Town-based attorney Michael Bagraim said prosecutors indicated they intend dropping the forgery charge. “If one has no hope of a forgery charge, the manslaughter charge has no traction at all because the one flows from the other.” This move has yet to be sanctioned by the judge. The retired paediatric oncologist is facing a charge of manslaughter following the death of a cancer patient he treated at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over a decade ago. But state officials in Abu Dhabi have been struggling to find the patient's original medical records. Karabus’ case has been in limbo for weeks after an Abu Dhabi judge postponed it indefinitely. But the 77-year-old, who is out on bail, is still not allowed to leave the UAE.

See the most recent of our posts ["24-Jan-13: Time for the United Arab Emirates to know the world is watching"] for the background to this thoroughly disgraceful affair. Beyond that, and until Prof. Karabus has his liberty and passport restored to him, we will refrain from making the kind of comment that this development would normally call for.

By the way, as we keep asking, is anyone from Qantas paying attention?

UPDATE: There's more. See our Tuesday midday report: "29-Jan-13: UAE "Justice" officials fiddle: The scandalous treatment of Prof. Karabus goes on and on"

24-Jan-13: Time for the United Arab Emirates to know the world is watching

About an hour ago, we received a promotional mailer from Qantas, of whose frequent flyer club we have been members for years. It announces (again) the impending merger with Emirates and all the good things to follow for travelers who passing through Dubai on QF's London and Europe-bound flights.

We mention this in the context of a traveler who did pass through Dubai half a year ago and unwittingly entered into a Kafkaesque descent into physical privation, financial pressure, humiliation, existential fear and the almost complete loss of his freedom in the literal sense of all those terms.

The affair at the heart of this call is so starkly unjust as to make you think it was scripted in Hollywood. But the central figure, the victim, is no actor. He is a retired professor of medicine whose professional career was replete with lives of children saved, public hospitals successfully run, medical milestones achieved, and years of quiet dedication to the urgent needs of pediatric patients from all strata of South African society during and after the apartheid era.

The outrageous, high-handed treatment of this beloved medical hero at the hands of the police and the courts in Abu Dhabi entered a new phase yesterday. This is the result of a request from a Cape Town lawyer calling for action against the authorities in the United Arab Emirates.

Professor Cyril Karabus did not know it at the time. But when he accepted an offer to do a brief locum (a temporary medical posting) in a UAE hospital more than a decade ago, he set in motion a series of shocking events that eventually left him shackled at his court appearances, and forced to sleep on the bare concrete floor of a prison (Al Wathba) notorious for its torture practices. Did we mention that he is 78? And has a cardiac pacemaker?

We have reported on the deeply troubling affair several times since September 2012 including these blog posts:

• 26-Sep-12: Dubai, Dubai, Dubai
• 15-Oct-12: Back to Dubai: Australian travelers might want to factor this report into their plans
• 21-Oct-12: Update on Prof. Cyril Karabus and his ongoing nightmare in United Arab Emirates
• 5-Nov-12: Travel update: Additional things you might want to know about transiting through Dubai
• 13-Dec-12: Kafka would certainly be proud: Update on the doctor arrested at Dubai airport
• 25-Dec-12: The Emirates scandal: the missing evidence turns up
• 1-Jan-13: Prof. Cyril Karabus faces his thirteenth hearing in a United Arab Emirates court tomorrow
• 2-Jan-13: For readers concerned with what is still being done to a distinguished healer of children with cancer
• 7-Jan-13 [UPDATED]: Karabus affair: UAE attorney-general "failed to turn up"

To recap briefly: 

Prof. Karabus, traveling with his wife, was arrested on August 17. 2012, while traveling via Dubai  back to his home in South Africa after celebrating his son's wedding in Canada. The UAE authorities seized his passport (which has still not been returned) as he entered the transit lounge and notified him that he had been tried and convicted of manslaughter and of falsifying documents without ever having been told about it. A three-year-old terminally ill child from Yemen whom he treated at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi in 2002 had died, and without being put on trial or getting so much as a telegram about the charges, he was convicted, sentenced to four years of imprisonment, and ordered to pay a huge sum of cash which UAE law calls - without embarrassment - 'blood money'. Taken from the transit lounge of one of the most opulent airports in the world, he spent months locked up in a notorious Abu Dhabi prison, known for its human rights violations. After numerous unproductive court appearances and being obliged to pay a financial bond (equal to 240,000 Rand or about US$27,000), he was granted bail in mid-October but required to remain within the emirate. He has had fifteen hearing dates in a court where no English is spoken, and where the state prosecution continues - until today - to be unable to locate the file on the basis of which the charges were brought. Lawyers familiar with the case say there is no possible way for him to be convicted in these circumstances. But he remains an unwilling 'guest' of the United Arab Emirates, burning through what remains of his retirement funds, paying for lawyers, living costs and travel expenses for family members while the UAE legal system looks away and busies itself with protecting its dignity. The entire affair is an obnoxious disgrace to the good name of law and justice.

Now this, from South Africa's Cape Argus newspaper, yesterday - January 22, 2013 ["Prof’s legal team urges boycott of Abu Dhabi"]

Cape Town Professor Cyril Karabus’s legal team has called on event organisers across the globe to reconsider hosting events in Abu Dhabi in a move to put pressure on the United Arab Emirates authorities. Karabus’s lawyer Michael Bagraim said the legal team had asked several organisations responsible for hosting events such as sports tournaments and oil and gas seminars in Abu Dhabi to boycott the country.
“We are trying a different approach that will apply pressure internally. We are asking businesses and organisations to consider boycotting the country as they (Abu Dhabi) are unfairly holding Karabus,” he said. [more]

And this ["Boycott United Arab Emirates, health professionals told" - January 22, 2013]:

Urging health professionals to stop applying for jobs in the UAE, Dr Mzukisi Grootboom, chairperson of the SA Medical Association, said: “This is for your own safety. We advise South African doctors and other health professionals to avoid working in the UAE. We ask that those already there to consider withdrawing their services in the interest of their own safety.” [more]

Sheikh Khalifa medical center: Do the glitz and oil wealth of
Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the UAE allow outrageous abuses
to escape notice?

If there is a version of this sordid narrative that is kinder to the UAE, then its officials are doing an exceedingly poor job of stating it. The impression is they don't give a damn - not about the professor, not about their international reputation. Assuming the facts are as they appear to be, Prof. Karabus is the innocent victim of a heavy-handed system that bears little resemblance to modern notions of justice and due process. As soon as it became clear that the prosecutors lacked the most basic files needed for their case, he should have been handed back his passport along with a personal apology from the appropriate senior official in charge of an out-of-control justice system, given assurances of appropriate financial compensation, and sent home flying first-class with Emirates Airlines.

Speaking of Emirates Airline, which is in the process of becoming Qantas' senior partner, consider what another South African publication wrote in November ["The Abu Dhabi nightmare continues for Dr Karabus"]

South Africa’s Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has been particularly vocal in lobbying for Karabus’s release. In a statement released on Monday, it criticised the handling of the case by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation... The TAC has also targeted Emirates Airline for criticism, as Karabus was flying Emirates when arrested. “We are astonished that the airline failed to warn Professor Karabus that he was wanted in the UAE,” it said. Sarah Karabus says that at the beginning of their journey in Toronto, airline staff informed them that there was some form of security alert attached to her father’s name, but would not elaborate, and certainly gave no sense of its severity. Sarah says that her family asked Emirates if it would consider funding tickets for them to visit Karabus in Abu Dhabi as a goodwill gesture, but it declined. When the Daily Maverick approached Emirates Airline for comment, it was told: “This is a legal issue being dealt with by the relevant authorities and does not involve Emirates.”

Boycott or not, that's the sort of shameful statement we think Qantas customers need to hear. If this is what the people in Emirates' hometown can do right in the midst of their bright, shiny super-luxury airport terminal to people of Prof. Karabus' stature, then who is safe?

Frankly, we are not much in favour of boycotts, but we do believe in loud and clear protests when the mainstream news media fail to report on injustice and oppression. That's certainly the case with Prof. Karabus' ongoing plight. His friends and supporters are now upping the stakes and have spoken with the SA media about their evolving campaign [see "Bagraim brings a world of pain down on Emirates"]. They should be supported as widely as possible.

If you have business connections in Abu Dhabi or Dubai, or if you happen to own Qantas, this is the time to speak out and let the faceless representatives of UAE justice know the world is watching.