South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal has ordered former President Jacob Zuma to return to prison after upholding an earlier ruling that his medical parole had been unlawful.

The 80-year-old was given a 15-month sentence last year for contempt of court over his refusal to testify during an investigation into corruption, but was released after two months in jail, after his lawyers argued that he had an undisclosed terminal illness.

In their unanimous judgement on Monday, the judges said that prison authorities should decide if the time the former president has unlawfully spent out of prison should count towards his sentence or not.