Soweto man re-arrested in US

The Soweto resident who was pardoned in the US after 15 years in prison for car hijacking and being an accessory to murder was released in January in Mississippi, only to be arrested and imprisoned again in Louisiana last week on immigration charges.

“He was thrown back into prison because his visa had expired in 1997,” said Patricia Gerber, director of Locked Up, a human rights organisation for prisoners overseas.

“I’m in contact with his mother and father, who were expecting him to be released and flown back last week,” she said.

Azikiwe “Azi” Kambule’s parents have flown to the US to try to secure his release. They declined to comment until they return to SA.

“It looks like someone is trying to stop his return to SA,” Gerber said. “Common sense would tell you he doesn’t have a visa if he was in prison for that length of time.”

In 1986, Kambule, then 18, was tried as an adult and received a 35-year jail sentence.

He is now 33.

Kambule was pardoned by former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour in January this year, one of 200 inmates Barbour pardoned before leaving office.

Kambule was subsequently arrested in Louisiana for not having the correct visa.

Kambule’s lawyer, Edward Blackmon, said he was in the custody of the US Immigration Office, and would be deported to SA within the next couple of weeks.

Originally from Soweto, the former Parktown Boys’ High School pupil and his parents moved to Jackson, Mississippi, when he was 15. Kambule later received a scholarship to study psychology at Jackson State University.

“On January 25, 1996 (Kambule) was driving in a car with Santonio Berry, a man in his 20s who he had befriended,” said Blackmon.

According to Kambule’s statement to police, Berry saw social worker Pam McGill drive by in a sports car and said he wanted the vehicle.

Berry followed McGill home, threatened her with a gun, and told her to get into the passenger side of her car, telling Kambule to get in the back.

Berry drove from Jackson to a neighbouring county, stopped the car, and told McGill to get out and follow him. Kambule stayed in the car. Kambule told the police that when Berry returned, he said he had shot McGill.

The two were arrested a week later and Kambule was found guilty of being an accomplice to capital murder.

International Co-operation spokesman Nelson Kgwete said he was unaware of the case. “I will need to follow up with the mission in the US and establish the facts.”

The US embassy was unavailable for comment at the time of going to print. - The Star