JOHANNESBURG

A court in South Africa granted former President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday the right to appeal an earlier judgment that ruled he must be returned to prison.

A court in the nation’s capital of Pretoria ruled last week that Zuma’s medical parole was granted unlawfully and directed that he be returned to prison to serve the remainder of his 15-month sentence.

"In my view this matter merits the Supreme Court’s attention,” Judge Elias Matojane said in his ruling granting Zuma the right to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Zuma, 79, was granted medical parole Sept. 5, after spending two months in prison.

He was sentenced in July after the Constitutional Court found him guilty of contempt for refusing to appear before a judicial commission probing graft during his nearly decade-long presidency.

His incarceration led to violent riots in South Africa, killing more than 300 and witnessing looting and vandalism, costing businesses billions of dollars.