Dentist pleads not guilty to murder relating to death of patient at ‘detox’ clinic

Dentist Anwar Mohamed Jeewa on Monday pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder after a Canadian man died two days after checking into his detox centre and being given controversial ibogaine treatment.

At the start of his trial before Durban high court judge Rashid Vahed, the dentist also pleaded not guilty to unlawfully manufacturing, compounding, selling, dispensing and exporting the Schedule 6 substance and for running an unregistered treatment centre.

Milos Martinovic was lured to Jeewa’s Westville-based Minds Alive Rehabilitation

Clinic in November 2017, believing that Jeewa could cure him from his addiction to Xanax — a benzodiazepine that acts as a depressant on the central nervous system — after the death of his mother from cancer.

One of the first witnesses to testify at the trial will be Martinovic’s fiancée and the mother of his child. She is expected to give evidence about his state of mind, his desperation to rid himself of his addiction and his belief in Jeewa.

The state alleges Jeewa had advertised himself as a specialist with extensive knowledge in ibogaine therapy for drug addiction.

He attended several conferences on the use of ibogaine, some as guest speaker, where he was advised, and he himself advised others, that ibogaine should not be used to treat an addiction to benzodiazepines.

While Jeewa had a permit issued in terms of the Agricultural Pests Act to import Tabernanthe iboga from Gabon, he is alleged to have used this plant material to manufacture ibogaine without a licence to do so.

He also allegedly dispensed, sold and exported it without a licence to do so.

It is understood Martinovic, a Canadian and French citizen, learnt about Minds Alive through its website and contacted Jeewa, whom he believed to be a medical doctor, with a view to be undergoing ibogaine therapy for his addiction.

It has been alleged that when he arrived at the treatment centre, he was in possession of several boxes of Xanax, which Jeewa allowed him to keep.

He was told to keep taking the tablets to avoid withdrawal symptoms but to try to reduce the intake in preparation for the ibogaine therapy.

The state alleges that Martinovic was effectively allowed to self-medicate with no supervision.

It was alleged that on November 7 2017, with the full knowledge that Martinovic had been self-medicating, Jeewa instructed his nurse to give Martinovic four ibogaine capsules.

At some point, following the administration of the last dose, Martinovic went into cardiac arrest.

The nurse was the only person present and she was untrained in emergency resuscitation procedures.

The subsequent post-mortem recorded the cause of death as being consistent with an alprazolam overdose.

The state said Jeewa subjectively foresaw the possibility that administering ibogaine to Martinovic, who had already ingested an unqualified dose of alprazolam, would bring about his death, and Jeewa “reconciled himself to this possibility and was reckless to the outcome” and therefore guilty of murder.

Jeewa was initially charged with culpable homicide along with the nurse, Zamokwakhe Hlongwane.

However, the charges were withdrawn against Hlongwane, who is now listed as a witness in the matter.

The Sunday Times previously reported that the family were unhappy that the charges against Hlongwane had been withdrawn, believing this could result in Jeewa’s acquittal because Hlongwane was the only person in the room and she had administered the ibogaine.

However, at that stage, Hlongwane was not on the witness list.

In her opening address, prosecutor advocate Nadira Moosa said during the trial there would be evidence from the Health Professions Council of South Africa, the department of social development and the department of health.

Video footage from the bedroom Martinovic was occupying at Minds Alive would also be presented in court as would audio recordings of conversations between Jeewa and others “in which he made several admissions”.

After Martinovic’s death, the police had also searched various premises and obtained emails and letters showing that Jeewa had knowledge that ibogaine should not be used for benzodiazepine addiction, Moosa said.

It is also expected that excerpts of a Youtube video, dated July 2017, will be shown in which Jeewa, at a conference in Vienna, portrays himself as an expert in ibogaine therapy.

In that video he claims he was addicted to drugs for 17 years, “thrown into mental institutions” and, thanks to ibogaine, was “clean for 20 years”.

He said his five-day programme was not a cure but an “addiction interrupter”.

Jeewa is being represented by advocate Jay Naidoo.

The trial is set to run until the end of May.