Prof Cyril Karabus will have to wait before returning home, as the prosecution in United Arab Emirates has 14 days to appeal his acquittal in court on Thursday.
Karabus was found not guilty on charges of manslaughter and falsifying documents on Thursday, in a case involving the death of a three-year-old cancer patient in his care more than a decade ago.
He was convicted in absentia and sentenced to three years in jail, in 2002.
Unaware of the charges and sentence, he was arrested and charged in Dubai on the 18th of August last year, while in transit on his return to South Africa from Canada, where he had attended his son's wedding.
The 77-year-old Karabus is an emeritus professor at the University of Cape Town and a specialist pediatric oncologist.
