SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's newly elected ANC President Jacob Zuma appears in court in connection with his impending corruption trial

Record ID: 455976

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's newly elected ANC President Jacob Zuma appears in court in connection with his impending corruption trial
  • Date: 11th March 2008
  • Summary: (W3) JOHANNESBURG; SOUTH AFRICA (MARCH 11, 2008) (REUTERS) CONSTITUTIONAL COURT EXTERIOR JUDGES AND LEGAL TEAMS SEATED VARIOUS OF JUDGES SEATED ZUMA ATTENDING TO HIS DOCUMENTS PEOPLE LISTENING THINT REPRESENTATIVE, PIERRE MOYNOT WATCHING PROCEEDINGS LEGAL TEAM ZUMA WATCHING JUDGES SEATED ZUMA LEAVING COURT
  • Embargoed: 26th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Legal System,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6GBGI0G5SZ4IXH0GLAC7ZNQ1V
  • Story Text: ANC leader Jacob Zuma launched a final bid in South Africa's highest court on Tuesday (March 10) to prevent some evidence being used against him in a corruption case that could stop him becoming president.
    Zuma, who defeated President Thabo Mbeki for the leadership of the ruling African National Congress in December, is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a French arms manufacturer.
    The trial for corruption, money-laundering, fraud and racketeering is due to start in August and is likely to decide whether Zuma succeeds Mbeki when he has to step down in 2009.
    Zuma has said he will bow out if convicted. Zuma and his legal team appeared in the Constitutional Court on Tuesday, requesting leave to appeal against prosecutors' searches and confiscation of documents in 2005.
    His legal team and that of arms firm Thint filed simultaneous applications for leave to appeal and this will be heard by a full bench of the Constitutional Court over two days.
    Zuma says the charges against him are politically motivated. There was a heavy police presence outside the court in Johannesburg for the hearing.
    Zuma and his legal team say the search warrants used in raids on properties belonging to Zuma and his defence attorney Michael Hulley violated their privacy, property and other rights guaranteed under South Africa's constitution.
    South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in November that documents seized by the elite Scorpions crime-fighting unit could be used against Zuma when he went to trial. The appeal court also opened the way for South African prosecutors to use documents from Mauritius said to contain evidence that bribes were solicited on behalf of Zuma in return for using his influence in a government arms deal.
    Zuma is also appealing that ruling in the Constitutional Court and in a separate case, he is also trying to block authorities in Mauritius from handing over documents for his trial.
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