Nearly four years after he was released on parole, wife killer Omar Sabadia, a former Pretoria psychiatrist, died this week in Tzaneen, Limpopo.
Sabadia was released on parole in October 2019 after serving 21 years of his 50-year sentence in jail.
Sabadia, 72, died after a short illness in hospital, anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee confirmed.
In 1996, Sabadia made headlines when he was arrested for hiring three hitmen – Albert Moeketsane, Richard Malema and Patrick Manyape – to kidnap and murder his wife, Zahida, so that he could collect R2.9 million in insurance.
Zahida, a medical student, went missing in February 1996. Her decomposing body was found 22 days later, outside Ga-Rankuwa, close to Pretoria.
Sabadia led a team of detectives to the spot where she was killed after he confessed to the murder.
She had been strangled, not far from where she and her husband were “hijacked”, after buying food at a fast-food outlet.
It later emerged that Sabadia, a father of three, who was a well-known psychiatrist, had hired hitmen to murder her. The hitmen also received harsh sentences ranging between 25 and 40 years each.
While the three had been released on parole before him, Sabadia remained behind bars until October 2019 at the Kgosi Mampuru II correctional centre in Pretoria.
This was after the parole board initially refused his parole. He subsequently turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria to have the decision overturned.
The judge who sentenced him in 1998 recommended he serve at least 35 years of his sentence before parole could be considered. It was said in court papers that he had at least on two occasions appeared before the board for a parole hearing.
Pretoria News