Ali appears for doctor

Press, 18 May 1989, Page 8

Ali appears for doctor

NZPA-Reuter Geneva The ailing former world heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, told a Geneva court in a faint voice that his health had improved since he had been treated by a controversial Yugo-slav-born doctor. Ali, diagnosed by other doctors as suffering from a form of Parkinson’s disease, told the Court trying Rajko Medenica on embezzlement charges that Medenica had improved Ali’s condition since beginning treatment last May.

The former champion walked very slowly but without shaking. During his testimony he managed to utter only about seven sentences. They were barely audible. Ali, aged 47, was one of a series of people testifying that Medenica, who now resides in the United States where he has citizenship, had been the only doctor able to help them. Medenica is accused of embezzling millions of francs by presenting false bills while a senior doctor at Geneva’s main hospital.

He is being tried in absentia and faces a possible prison sentence of up to 15 years. Ali expressed gratitude “first toward God and then toward him (Medenica).”

“When I held my hands like this,” he said as he held out his hands steadily, “they shook. Also, he cleaned my blood.” Ali’s wife Yolanda, frequently having to speak on his behalf, explained that Medenica diagnosed Ali as not having Parkinson’s syndrome, as other doctors said, but instead that his blood had been

poisoned by pesticides. Parkinson’s syndrome is a treatable form of the degenerative, incurable Parkinson’s disease, the main symptom of which is uncontrollable shaking of the limbs. In February, Ali travelled to Belgrade to seek a pardon for Medenica who faces 20 years in jail if he returns to his homeland. Medenica, aged 49, was convicted in absentia by a Belgrade court in 1983 of embezzling millions of dollars of Yugoslav health insurance by returning inflated bills for Yugoslav patients he had treated in

Geneva. Yolanda, aged 32, All’s third wife, told the Court that before his treatment people thought Ali looked as if he was on drugs. “Muhammad had a very low image of himself. After this treatment he was full of life," she said. “Basically what Dr Medenica has found is that Muhammad does not have so-called Parkinson’s syndrome. He has classified Muhammad’s ailment as Muhammad Ali’s syndrome. It is peculiar to Muhammad and Muhammad alone.”