There is growing support in Samoa for the government to stop releasing prisoners for week-end parole after a seventy year old taxi driver was robbed and beaten by a week-end parole prisoner.
The police say the inmate after beating the elderly man took off in the victim's car last Saturday.
The taxi driver, Lupe Fulumua, on a local television has supported a call by a government MP, Solamalemalo Keneti Sio, for the prisoners to serve in full their jail sentence without sending them home for week-end parole.
Our correspondent Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia says that weekend parole is a privilege, but after the latest incident many people are now voicing to scrap it altogether.
"I think it's now the matter for the Minister of Police to consider it and it needs a lot of support from NGO's and lobby groups for the government to seriously consider this as a a result of the latest incident involving a weekend parole prisoner."
Our correspondent in Apia, Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia
