SYDNEY MAREE RELEASED FROM S. AFRICAN PRISON

Sydney Maree

Below is an official statement from Daniel Maree, Sydney's son, on Sydney's release from prison in South Africa.  It was sent to family members and supporters of Maree's quest to be vindicated of the charges against him on the occasion of his release.  More information on this bizarre case that landed one of South Africa's greatest athletes and rising government officials in prison can be found here, and at the website Maree v. State.  Additional updates will be posted as soon as they are made available.

Maree broke the World Record at 1500 meters when he ran 3:31.24 in Cologne, Germany on August 28, 1983.  When he ran 13:01.15 over 5000 meters in 1985, it was an American Record and the third fastest time in history.  All told, he set American records at 1500, 2000, 3000, and 5000 meters. In 1981, he won the inaugural 5th Avenue Mile in Manhattan in 3:47.52, a time that has never since been bested.  While at Villanova, Maree was a five-time NCAA champion (3 individual titles outdoors and 2 DMR anchors indoors), and he was a seven-time Penn Relays and eight-time IC4A champion. 

Dear friends,

Now that he is out of harms way, I'm very happy to report that Sydney was officially released from ODI Prison earlier this month! 

He served 21 months of a 60 month sentence and will be on parole for another 21 months. The conditions of his parole are no overseas travel and he must be home by 5pm every day. There has been no official statement from the government regarding his release as we believe they would like to minimize public scrutiny of the case as much as possible. 

On behalf of Sydney and the entire Maree family, I can't thank you enough for your continued concern and support. We gave them hell, and Sydney believes this was one of the reasons, if not the main reason, for his early release. Who knows how much longer they would have made him serve had it not been for the noise we made. You should all be extremely proud. I know Sydney will never forget it and he's eager to thank you all in person as soon as he is able to leave the country.

This is just the beginning of the process of exposing the truth. A brilliant new Producer has joined the Maree v. State documentary team and we're moving full speed ahead with plans to release the film in 2014, right in time for the South African national elections. We will be traveling to South Africa this summer to shoot final interviews before wrapping production. Any additional support you would like to give would be greatly appreciate as our first round of fundraising went to the New York shoot, which we will have a sneak peak of in a few months when we finish the trailer. 

Thanks again for standing by Sydney; we did it! 

Sincerely,

Daniel Maree

www.mareevstate.com