BEIJING, May 24 -- You can deport them, pepper spray them, beat them, even jail them, but you can't keep the paparazzi who are covering the final days of Angelina Jolie's pregnancy down.

    In the latest saga in Jolie and Brad Pitt's ongoing battle for privacy, South African photographer John Liebenberg was arrested Friday for trespassing while on a quest to photograph the expectant parents.

    Liebenberg was taken into custody after driving into the back of a police barracks while trying to secure a vantage point of a nearby private hospital, where he'd heard Jolie had been rushed to give birth.

    He spent three days in a communal jail cell before appearing in court Monday to face the charges.

    Prosecutors recommended that he serve one year in prison or pay the equivalent of a $152 fine. Liebenberg's lawyers, on the other hand, angled for a fine.

    But Walvis Bay magistrate Sarel Jacobs let the photographer off with just a warning, calling his weekend of imprisonment "unnecessary."

    "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?" Jacobs asked during sentencing.

    "I don't understand that, and I think it was unnecessary."

    Jacobs' lenient approach toward Liebenberg was unusual in a country where officials have expressed sympathy for Pitt and Jolie and have chastised the paparazzi for hounding the high-profile couple.

    Last month, Namibian Prime Minister Nahas Angula told the Sunday Times of South Africa that he felt the couple was entitled to some measure of protection from the photographers.

    "Harassment is not allowed in Namibia," he said. "If a person says they don't want to be photographed then, of course, that person deserves protection."

    Pitt and Jolie have definitely gone to extreme measures to ensure their privacy is guarded. The beach front resort where they have been holed up for the last several weeks with their kids has been swathed in green cloth screens, while an aggressive security detail prevents unwanted visitors from getting too close.

    Late last month, Jolie told NBC that she was not quite eight months pregnant. Now that a few weeks have passed, Maddox and Zahara should have a new baby brother or sister any day now.