No early release for Shaik

2008-10-01 21:13

Johannesburg - There was no truth in the rumour that fraudster Schabir Shaik would be released on Thursday, said the Department of Correctional Services on Wednesday.

"The rumour that Shaik is going to be released tomorrow (Thursday) is not true," KwaZulu-Natal Correctional Services spokesperson Thami Zondi said.

He said Shaik's doctors had not yet provided the department with any documentation which would qualify him for parole or any other form of release.

Zondi also denied that Shaik would be discharged from hospital on Thursday.

"He is still going to be at the hospital outside the prison," he said.

In responding to a written question in Parliament on Wednesday, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour told Parliament that Shaik may be discharged from the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal by next week, reported the SABC.

15-year sentence

Shaik would go back to prison after being discharged, according to the national broadcaster.

Shaik, who was ANC president Jacob Zuma's former financial adviser, was convicted in 2005 by Judge Hillary Squires on two counts of corruption and one of fraud and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

He started serving his sentence in November 2006 after numerous appeals failed.

However, he has spent lengthy periods in the Inkosi Albert Luthuli hospital since then with health problems related to his blood pressure.

His brother Mo Shaik said on Wednesday that he knew nothing of his brother's impending discharge.

"We haven't heard anything of the sort," he said.

Shaik said the family would expect Correctional Services to "have had the decency to let us know".

- SAPA