A man who is detained over bribery charges has pleaded with the judicial authorities to grant him bail on humanitarian grounds to be able to be with his leukaemia-stricken son who is said to be in his final days.

While the Palestinian father currently waits behind bars to be produced before the Dubai Court of First Instance over Dh120,000 bribery accusation, his nine-year-old son is on deathbed as per his medical reports that have confirmed that the child is living the last days of his life after cancer has spread.

The father, who is a businessman, could not leave the country earlier to be with his son due to a bounced cheque complaint against him.

Thereafter, he allegedly bribed a government official, who helped him fly out and in to Dubai in December.

Police arrested the businessman and a government official and referred them to Dubai prosecutors who charged both of them with bribery.

According to medical reports obtained by Gulf News, the parents have been counselled that there is no treatment which can be offered as cure to their son as his disease has become intractable now.

“The metronomic therapy is only a low dose therapy to prolong life. He (the boy) will only require supportive care at this point,” read the medical report.

When contacted, the worried mother told Gulf News that she is now only praying to God to soothe the pains of her son and hopes that his father would be granted bail to be able to join him in hospital.

Having agreed to handle the father’s case and defend him for free on humanitarian grounds before the Dubai Court of First Instance, advocate Nasser Hashem told Gulf News: “This is a very heartbreaking humanitarian case. It’s very sensitive and distressing to the parents and especially my client, who remains in custody, pending the presiding judge’s decision on whether to grant him bail on humanitarian grounds or not. I’ve already lodged an official bail request before the pertinent court and we are hoping that it gets approved. My client and I pledge that he will attend all the hearings since he respects the judicial authorities and is willing to abide by all required law enforcement procedures. He is also willing to meet up with all the required conditions in case his bail request gets approved.”

Following an unsuccessful bone marrow transplant in Beirut and another operation in Amman, the boy’s doctors advised his mother to fly her son into Dubai to spend what’s left of time for him to live with his brothers and father.

Since the dramatic deterioration in the boy’s health, the father has not been able to see his son except for one time when Dubai prosecutors granted him a tentatively short bail when he was accompanied by law enforcement officers to see his son on his hospital bed.

“The investigating chief prosecutor was humane enough to grant my client a brief bail to see his son before he was taken back into custody, pending trial. This is a uniquely difficult and disheartening case to handle … I myself pray to God to grant the parents the will and power to deal with this ordeal,” said advocate Hashem.

The boy was admitted to a Dubai-based hospital where he was offered empirical antibiotics for possible infection and discharged him on oral antibiotics when he was afebrile for more than 24 hours before he was started on metronomic therapy.

According to medical reports, the child, a known case of refractory acute myeloid leukaemia post bone marrow transplant relapse, failed three lines of therapy. He arrived in the Dubai-based hospital from Jordan in January after receiving treatment at Al Hussain Cancer Centre in Amman. Since he failed three lines of treatment, according to medical reports, the boy was offered palliative treatment there.

“The child now has slipped into coma and we only pray for God to have mercy on him. We also beseech the judicial authorities to approve the bail request and allow the father to join his son,” concluded the lawyer

source : gulfnews