Former South African President Zuma released from prison due to overcrowding

Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Former South African President Jacob Zuma returned to prison and was released on Friday under rules to relieve overcrowding, authorities said.

Zuma, 81, had returned to custody at the rural prison in KwaZulu-Natal Province after being on medical parole as part of his 15-month sentence for defying a court order to testify on corruption charges.

He was released an hour after he arrived because of overcrowding. Zuma was two months into his sentence before going on medical parole.

South Africa's Commissioner of Prisons Makgothi Thobakgale confirmed Zuma entered the Estcourt Correctional Facility before being released. The move was signed off on by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Thobakgale said Zuma qualified for release as a low-risk offender.

Opposition groups criticized the release of Zuma saying it was not a coincidence that he would return to the prison on the same day the facility started a release program because of overcrowding.

"This is a monumental insult to each and every South African," Glynnis Breytenbach, a member of Parliament for the opposition Democratic Alliance, said. "This entire scheme was devised with one aim in mind -- to ensure that Zuma does not spend any time in prison."

Zuma was initially sentenced for refusing to testify before a panel probing financial fraud and cronyism under his presidency. After he was released on medical parole, an appeals court ruled the release was illegally granted and ordered Zuma back to prison.

In July, South Africa's constitutional court refused to overturn the appeal court's ruling and ordered Zuma back to prison.