Jolie – Pitt Baby Photog Arrested, Released

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Monday, May 22, 2006

A Namibian judge has released a man arrested for taking photos of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt based on a tip she was about to deliver their baby.

A Namibian judge dismissed charges on Monday against a South African photographer arrested for trespassing while trying to snap a shot of pregnant superstar Angelina Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt. John Liebenberg was taken into custody on Friday afternoon after driving into the back of a police barracks in search of a vantage point to take a photograph of a nearby private hospital in the port town of Walvis bay.

The 48-year-old veteran photo journalist was reacting to a tip-off that Jolie had been rushed there to have her baby. He was released on a warning after being detained for three days in a communal cell. “It might be that you are a foreigner and that you were arrested for trespassing (but) why was it necessary to keep you in custody for the whole weekend?” Walvis Bay magistrate Sarel Jacobs asked during sentencing. “I don’t understand that and I think it was unnecessary,” he added before dismissing the charge.

The prosecution had asked for a fine of 1,000 Namibian dollars ($152) or a year in prison. Liebenberg’s lawyer had suggested a fine.

Liebenberg, well known to the couple’s bodyguards and security personnel, said police may have wanted to use him as an example to warn other photographers and media. “They probably wanted to make an example of me to the other so-called nasty paparazzi press. But we have been very respectful to them,” he told Reuters.

A year in jail or $152, eh? Not much of a choice for a Western photographer; a bigger dilemma in Namibia.