Slidell man suffers heart attack while imprisoned in South Sudan - News Banner

  A man who has been detained in South Sudan prison since mid-October suffered from a mild heart attack Monday night, his wife says.

Elton Mark McCabe, 52, of Slidell, traveled to the Republic of South Sudan in August in hopes of finding business opportunities. According to his wife Anne, Mark McCabe and a friend were working to start an Internet company but something went awry and Mark McCabe would eventually be apprehended by South Sudanese security forces.

At the time, Mark McCabe was charged with allegedly being in connection with the kidnapping of an Indian businessman, but Mark McCabe’s wife and Sen. David Vitter, R-La.—who has been vigorously advocating the man’s release—say the allegations are completely false. At this time, Mark McCabe has been cleared of the original charges but was arrested again in November, Anne McCabe says. New charges, if any, aren’t clear at this point.

Mark McCabe suffered from a previous heart attack in December of last year and when he couldn’t find work locally, he sought employment overseas. According to his wife, Mark McCabe knew of the dangers in South Sudan but never believed a threat would come directly from the South Sudanese government.

In a letter to South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit, Vitter urged the South Sudan government to allow Mark McCabe to be evacuated to Nairobi, Kenya in order to see a cardiologist, which was at the request of a doctor the Slidell man was being treated by in Juba, South Sudan.

“I am again contacting you with a life-threatening situation taking place in Juba. I am requesting with the utmost urgency that Mr. McCabe be evacuated to Nairobi to see a cardiologist, as his doctor in Juba has specifically and urgently recommended,” Vitter said in his letter to Kiir. “I request that you contact the judge responsible for ensuring Mr. McCabe’s trial and communicate the humanitarian needs of this case.”

Meanwhile, Anne McCabe remains at home in Slidell with the couples three children.

 She continues to fight for her husband’s life and safe return back to the United States.

“His medication is a delicate balance of things he has to take everyday. This whole situation is endangering my husband’s life...it’s endangering the roof over our head,” said Anne McCabe, who also said the family is currently relying on the income of their 19-year-old son and bank savings.

“There’s no reason for this. That’s the point we need to drive home,” she said. “And now they’ve endangered his life to where he’s had a mild heart attack.”

According to Vitter’s office, Mark McCabe was scheduled for trial on Thanksgiving day even though he wasn’t formally charged with a crime.

Last week Vitter sent a letter to Kiir urging the president to grant Mark McCabe due process as guaranteed by the laws of South Sudan, as well as international law. With the circumstances changing and the threat of Mark McCabe’s health deteriorating further, Vitter says it’s time the South Sudanese government does the right thing.

“Flawed legal proceedings, especially in countries where we send humanitarian and security aid, should not be tolerated,” Vitter said. “With the recent decline to Mark’s health, now more than ever is this an opportunity for South Sudan to do the right thing and release him on humanitarian grounds to the United States.”

Vitter further stated that the U.S. government “regularly recognizes the humanitarian needs of your people” through substantial foreign aid and other means.

“The question is whether your government will do the same for an American,” Vitter said.

In the fiscal year 2012, the U.S. provided South Sudan with nearly $32 million in law enforcements funds and that figure is in addition to an estimated $242 million on other aspects of humanitarian aid, Vitter’s office noted.

The South Sudanese government did allow Mark McCabe to be transferred to a local clinic—staffed by a select number of American doctors—but Vitter and Anne McCabe state the matter beyond serious enough for the man to be transferred to Nairobi.

Anne McCabe says the South Sudanese government has agreed to release her husband to Kenya only if someone else takes his place in prison.

“The State Department allowed us a loan of $60,000 for medical treatment “if and when” the South Sudan government allows my husband to get proper medical care,” Anne McCabe said.

“To be held completely for something you never did is a lot to ask of a human being,” Anne McCabe said. “My husband was detained illegally to begin with.”