Att: Mr. Ngconde Balfour

Minister of Correctional Services

Private Bag X136

Pretoria

0001

cc: Ms. Xoliswa Sibeko - National Commissioner of Prisons

Mr. Jody Kollapen - South African Human Rights Commission

10 March 2009

Minister Balfour,

Call for a Review into the Release of Shabir Shaik

1. This letter demands that you use your power as Minister of Correctional Services to review the decision to release Shabir Shaik on medical parole.

2. Shaik is not an ordinary criminal. His role in promoting and facilitating corrupt activities in the Arms Deal tender process has become the most infamous act of its kind in post Apartheid South Africa. His complete lack of remorse and continued tendency to lie in an attempt to exonerate himself, his frequent application of his unique position of power and that of his high-ranking friends and colleagues to escape the law, the links he has to the highest levels of government whose implication in the Arms Deal corruption is linked to his own, and recent questionable reports by hospital and prison personnel to the effect that Shaik is not terminally ill, provide more than enough reasons to instate a review into his parole and provide full disclosure of the outcome.

3. Today, the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) has released a statement (attached - see here) demanding the following:

3.1 Your office and/or the Commissioner of Prisons must institute a High Court review of the grounds on which Shaik was released.

3.2 An independent panel of medical experts must be nominated by the South African Human Rights Commission and the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons to examine Shaik and submit reports to the court.

3.3 The terms of reference must include the investigation into any possible political interference in a procedure designed for the compassionate release of dying people.

3.4 Should the request for a review be turned down, written reasoning must be provided within seven days.

4. If no response is received by Tuesday 17 March or if you deny this request, we will approach the South African Human Rights Commission to join us in the High Court to ague that a review be ordered, on the grounds that it is unconstitutional for such an important mechanism to be under the sole control of the Minister.

Sincerely,

pp

Gavin Silber & Angy Peter

Coordinating Committee

Social Justice Coalition

Issued by the Social Justice Coalition March 10 2009

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