JOHANNESBURG, South Africa— South Africa's former
president Jacob Zuma, jailed for 15 months in July for contempt of court after
snubbing graft investigators, was on Sunday granted medical parole, prison
authorities announced.
اضافة اعلان
Zuma has been hospitalized since August 6 at a health
facility outside the prison where he had been incarcerated for ignoring a court
order to testify before a judicial panel probing corruption during his
nine-year tenure which lasted until 2018.
The Department of Correctional Services said in a statement
on Sunday that "Mr Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma has been placed on medical
parole."
The parole took effect on Sunday and he will serve out the
rest of the 15-month prison sentence outside jail.
"Medical parole placement for Mr Zuma means that he
will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community
corrections, whereby he must comply with a specific set of conditions and will
be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires," it said.
The decision to grant parole was motivated "by a
medical report" the department received, it said.
The 79-year-old was admitted to hospital for observation on
August 6 for an undisclosed condition, and underwent a surgical procedure on
August 14. He remains hospitalized.
'Dignity'
Prison authorities appealed to South Africans to
"afford Mr
Zuma dignity as he continues to receive medical
treatment".
He started serving his sentence on July 8 at the Estcourt
prison, around 180km northwest of Durban. Two weeks later, he was allowed to
leave prison to attend his brother's funeral at his Nkandla rural home.
His jailing sparked a spree of unprecedented violence and
looting of businesses and shops in post-apartheid South Africa, resulting in
millions of dollars’ worth of damage and losses.
His successor Cyril Ramaphosa described the unrest as an
orchestrated attempt to destabilize the country and vowed to crack down on
alleged instigators.
Earlier on Sunday a handful of members of a group of
veterans of the ruling African National Congress’ armed struggle wing Umkhonto
we Sizwe, who have staunchly stood behind Zuma in recent years, disrupted a
eulogy by the party chairman Gwede Mantashe, at a funeral of one of group's
leaders, chanting for Zuma to be freed from jail.
Meantime, Zuma's long-running corruption trial over an arms
deal dating back more than two decades was last month postponed to September 9,
pending a medical report on his fitness to stand trial.
Proceedings have repeatedly been postponed for more than a
decade as Zuma fought to have the charges dropped.
Zuma faces 16 counts of fraud, graft, and racketeering
related to the 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats, and equipment from
five European arms firms when he was deputy president.
He is accused of taking bribes from one of the firms, French
defense giant Thales, which has been charged with corruption and money
laundering.
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