Indian-origin South African psychiatrist who hired hitmen to kill his wife for insurance money dies while on parole

Johannesburg, Sep 22 (PTI): A South African psychiatrist of Indian-origin, who was sentenced to 50 years of imprisonment for hatching a conspiracy to kill his wife, died this week, nearly four years after he was released on parol.

Johannesburg, Sep 22 (PTI): A South African psychiatrist of Indian-origin, who was sentenced to 50 years of imprisonment for hatching a conspiracy to kill his wife, died this week, nearly four years after he was released on parole.

Omar Sabadia was jailed for 50 years in 1998 for arranging the murder of his wife in 1996.

Sabadia died in a hospital in Tzaneen, Limpopo after a brief illness, officials said. He was 72.

In 1996, Sabadia claimed that he and his medical student wife Zahida were kidnapped and that the hijackers had taken her away in the family car.

Media showed a distraught Sabadia with the couple’s three young children making desperate pleas for people to find their mother. Zahida’s decomposing body was found 22 days later, tied to a tree near the black township of Ga Rankuwa, north of Pretoria.

Sabadia had broken down and taken detectives to the scene after he confessed that he had hired three men to kill Zahida.

After their arrest, the hired killers Albert Moeketsane, Richard Malema and Patrick Manyape confessed that Sabadia had hired them to murder Zahida so that he could get her insurance on a policy worth nearly USD 2 million.

The three killers were sentenced to between 25 and 40 years of imprisonment, but were later granted parole.

Sabadia was also granted parole in 2019, despite objections from his children, who were raised by their maternal grandparents. All three are now professionals in different fields, the eldest being 36.

Two years after the murder, the trial magistrate described the killing as “brutal, cruel and inhumane” and sentenced Sabadia to 50-year jail term. The court also heard at the time how he had manipulated people into believing that he was a grieving bereaved husband, using his psychiatric training.

An official source who declined to be quoted said Sabadia was released on parole after serving 21 years and not the required 25 years on humanitarian grounds. PTI FH SCY SCY

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)