Former Cape top cop gets early parole

FORMER provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer was among the low-risk prisoners the Department of Correctional Services released on parole this week, in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19 in prisons.

Lamoer was granted parole on Monday at the Malmesbury Correctional Facility, after serving two years of his sentence.

He was sentenced to six years in jail after being found guilty of corruption in 2018. Two former senior police officers, Darius van der Ross and Colin Govender, were each sentenced to four years, and businessman Saleem Dawjee received a six-year sentence.

Departmental spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said Lamoer benefited from the special remission of sentences, and had reached the minimum detention period.

“Correctional supervision and the parole board considered his profile and he was confirmed to be eligible for parole placement, based on the completion of the correctional sentence plan and reports from specialists,” said Nxumalo.

Lamoer would have been released on June 6, he said.

Earlier this month, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola announced that 19 000 low-risk inmates at 240 correctional centres would be released due to overcrowding amid the pandemic. The offenders are being released in a phased process, starting with women, children and elderly inmates. They will be followed by offenders with shorter sentences, and then those with longer sentences.