The high court in Pretoria has set aside the decision to release former president Jacob Zuma on medical parole, ordering him to go back to jail.

The Gauteng High Court ruled that former National Commissioner of Correctional Services Arthur Fraser’s decision to place former president Jacob Zuma on medical parole was unlawful – and ordered that he should return to jail.

“It is declared that the time [Zuma] was out of jail on medical parole should not be counted for the fulfilment of [Zuma’s] sentence of 15 months imposed by the Constitutional Court,” the court ruled on Wednesday morning.

Zuma and the national commissioner were ordered to pay the costs of the medical parole challenge.