WBRZ - Baton Rouge

JACKSON, Miss.- A South African man supported by a Nobel Peace prize recipient is among four inmates to be released Saturday after the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled former Gov. Haley Barbour's pardons were legal.

Barbour pardoned 198 people before finishing his second term Jan. 10. A judge ordered five to remain in prison pending the outcome of Attorney General Jim Hood's challenge of the pardons. The court ruled Thursday that the pardons were legal.

One of the inmates being held was recently released because his sentence was completed.

Corrections officials say the others will be released on Saturday, including Azikiwe Kambule, sentenced in 1997 to 35 years for armed carjacking and accessory after the fact to murder.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nobel winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu supported his petition.