Former President lose arms trial acquittal bid

Former South African President Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thales have lost their bid for summary acquittals in the long-running arms deal corruption trial. Last week, KwaZulu-Natal High Court (Pietermaritzburg) Judge Nkosinathi Chili dismissed their applications in which they cited 'unreasonable' delays in their corruption trial. News24 reports that while Chili said he did not want to apportion blame, the state argued that the delays had largely been caused by Zuma and, to a lesser degree, Thales. In an argument that Zuma threw his weight behind, Thales submitted that the delays had seen former Thales director Pierre Moynot and company boss Alain Thetard – described as pivotal defence witnesses – die. Their deaths, Thales argued, meant it was incapable of receiving a fair trial. But Chili said 'on the facts presented to this court', he was 'not persuaded that it was sufficiently established that Thales will suffer irredeemable, irreparable, or insurmountable prejudice if the state were to allow to continue with the prosecution in the face of the deaths of Messrs Thetard and Moynot'. He added that the trial court 'has a duty to consider all the evidence before it, including the non-availability of defence witnesses before returning a verdict'. 'I’m not persuaded either that Mr Zuma’s right to a fair trial will be prejudiced by the non-availability of Mr Thetard and Mr Moynot,' Chili said. The Daily Maverick reports that Zuma and Thales stand accused of corruption, racketeering, money laundering and fraud related to the 1999 arms deal. Zuma is accused of receiving payments totalling R4.1m between 1995 and 2004 from his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik and Shaik’s companies to further Thales’ interests. NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga welcomed the judgment. 'We feel vindicated in view of our long-held belief that this was a rehearsed application, which had been pronounced upon by the courts in 2018. We hope that there will be no more interlocutory application that will have an undesirable impact or effect of delaying the trial. We hope that it resumes without any further delays,' he said. The case has been postponed to 4 December, when the state will apply for the trial to proceed regardless of any appeals launched by the former President and the arms company.

Zuma and Thales are yet to decide whether they will file an appeal. The Cape Times reports that the former President had piggybacked on the French arms manufacturer's application for the permanent stay to escape being tried for fraud, corruption, racketeering, and money laundering charges. Zuma was not in court yesterday. The state and defence teams agreed to postpone the case to 4 December. The postponement would give Thales time to decide whether to file an appeal against Chili's ruling. Zuma would also get time to go to a higher court to appeal against Judge Chili's ruling that State Advocate Billy Downer SC should continue prosecuting the matter.

Full Cape Times report

Full Daily Maverick report

Full News24 report