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Shaik is not under house arrest, says official

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Mar 04 2009 07:33

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Fraud convict Schabir Shaik, who has been released from jail on medical parole, is not under house arrest but is confined to his magisterial district, a report on his parole conditions said on Wednesday.

Correctional services chief deputy commissioner Teboho Motseki told the Star that Shaik was not under house arrest and would not be required to report anywhere.

However, correctional services officials would visit his family once a month and Shaik would be confined to a specific magisterial district.

Motseki said there were four phases in terms of parole conditions, the fourth being the most restrictive and the first being the most relaxed.

Shaik's parole conditions fell under phase two, he said.

Correctional services spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said Shaik could not be re-arrested if his health improved.

"The only grounds on which [a paroled prisoner] could be released would be if he or she re-offended or violated the conditions of his or her parole," said Wolela.

Shaik was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2005 on two counts of corruption and one of fraud, which, among other things, related to an alleged bribe he negotiated between Zuma and a French arms company.

Zuma, the African National Congress's presidential candidate in the upcoming elections, said on the weekend that, given Shaik's health, he should have been released long ago.

CONTINUES BELOW

Shaik has served two years and four months of his 15-year term, spending most of that time in hospital due to high blood pressure, depression and chest pains. -- Sapa

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Comments

Hang on.

If Shaik is supposedly in the "final stages" of a terminal illness, he should be confined to, at the very least, a bed - not a district of some description...

Also, is he going back to jail if he doesn't snuff it by the end of May?

Robert Davies on March 4, 2009, 8:33 am

Isn't life sweet for a criminal? Did his "terminal condition" prevent him from partaking in criminal acts? No - so why should it prevent him from serving his time? All just in time for elections so JZ can not be put on the spot once he is elected president.

Jason Kentridge on March 4, 2009, 8:46 am

I smell a rat, and a big one too! Despite his so-called "terminal" status, any bets that after a suitable period of "lying low", Shabir will undergo a miraculous recovery and be back running his companies within a year!

Joe Public on March 4, 2009, 12:42 pm

He cannot be re-arrested and his parole allows him to roam all of Cape Town as much as he desires. That is a release from prison. Period.

Watch him recover and live the rest of his life in the lap of luxury as a free man. The only thing with a terminal illness is our justice system.

mandingo giddy-p on March 4, 2009, 4:10 pm

Criminals cannot be confined, unless it is behind bars, in a prison. Is it so difficult to understand that is what was intended precisely, all along and for centuries, that they be removed from society (and all its trappings)!
Goodness, I do not want to hear any more of this shi.!!! Put him back where he belongs!

Pierre Hough on March 5, 2009, 12:05 am

I smell a rat too funny somebody else said that.
Did Shabir promise, (you know who), some favours in order to win the elections? what a coincidence that he set free now! I wonder what went on behind the our backs?

Ben Sibeijn on March 5, 2009, 4:03 pm

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