A dreaded criminal who was serving life in prison in a South African jail for heinous crimes had escaped the jail by faking his death with help from guards. He has been arrested by police in Tanzania, who have sent him back to his home country.
The 35-year-old convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester, who is being deported to South Africa by Tanzanian authorities, was arrested with his girlfriend Dr. Nandipha Magudumana and a Mozambican national named Zakaria Alberto on Friday, according to CNN.
South African police minister Bheki Cele told reporters that the trio had several passports each that had not been stamped and were just 10 kilometres from crossing into Kenya. Bester was sent to the Kgosi Mampuru Central Maximum Prison in Pretoria, where he will be closely watched.
"We are placing 24-7 surveillance on him. We're also placing a 24-7 contact with him with selected highly trained Correctional Services officials to ensure that whatever circumstances he finds himself in, we'll be on call and we do not experience any security breaches," South Africa's Department of Correctional Services (DCS) boss Makgothi Thobakgale told reporters in Cape Town.
Dr. Nandipha Magudumana, Bester's girlfriend who was also arrested alongside him, has also been deported. Her father is accused of assisting Bester's prison break.
According to the BBC, Bester was at large for a year after it was thought he died by setting himself on fire in his prison cell in the South African city of Bloemfontein. A manhunt was launched last month after a new post-mortem investigation revealed the body was not actually his.
The celebrity doctor's father, Zolile Sekeleni, and a suspended prison warden, Senohe Matsoara, have been charged with murder, arson, and aiding and abetting Bester's escape. The two men appeared in a magistrate's court in Bloemfontein earlier this week.
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