DUBAI - A local legal practitioner is warning South African Justin van Pletzen to get out of the United Arab Emirates as soon as possible.

Van Pletzen was arrested in Dubai this week, seemingly for filming controversial figure, Ajay Gupta.

Lawyer, Michael Bagraim painstakingly worked for months to get a South African doctor back home following his arrest there six years ago and he&39;s urging van Pletzen to pay his way out.

Bagraim, tried for over six months to get paediatric oncologist, Cyril Karabus, back home.

In 2012, the then 78-year-old had been arrested during a layover in Dubai.

He&39;d been convicted, without his knowledge 10 years prior, of manslaughter in connection with the death of a young leukaemia patient in 2002.

Karabus was later acquitted but suffered several bureaucratic setbacks and could only return home seven months later.

Bagraim stated, "The legal system is almost non-existent. We can be very proud of the fact that we as South Africans have a constitution. We have a great working legal system. That doesn&39;t exist in the United Arab Emirates at all and many South Africans going to work there, actually don&39;t take that into account. And we hear about these arrests on a daily basis and there&39;s nothing you can do."

He advises van Pletzen to act swiftly, to avoid any further trouble.

Bagraim is urging South African authorities to do more to assist South Africans in the UAE.