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By ANA Reporter 
9h ago
Cape Town – Former Bosasa executive Angelo Agrizzi, who faces corruption charges in the state’s capture scandal, is on life support after suffering a heart attack, his lawyer confirmed Thursday.
“Obviously, he’s in very serious condition,” Daniel Witz said.
Agrizzi suffered the heart attack Wednesday at a private Johannesburg hospital where he was admitted a few days after being denied bail in a case involving alleged bribes paid to former ANC MP Vincent Smith.
Witz said his client was on three different forms of life support in intensive care, including a ventilator and a dialysis machine.
Agrizzi has a respiratory condition and appeared in court last week with a mobile oxygen tank.
He was admitted to a public hospital the following day and was rushed to a private hospital on Monday.
Witz said he was moved after the public facility warned that he had run out of intensive care space and could not treat him properly.
The Department of Correctional Services then granted permission for him to be transferred, provided his family paid the cost of the transfer.
The Palm Ridge Specialized Commercial Crimes Court denied bail to the former Bosasa operations director after the National Prosecutor’s Office presented a flight risk.
Prosecutors argued that Agrizzi had misrepresented his financial situation and the fact that he kept an Italian passport.
He told the court that he had bought a villa in a town in Tuscany.
Agrizzi is contesting the bail ruling, and Witz said the matter would be heard Monday in the absence of his client.
Agrizzi is alleged to have organized bribes to persuade Smith, the former chairman of Parliament’s prison services portfolio committee, to drop his resistance to the company securing lucrative tenders for prison services.
African News Agency (ANA)
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