I'm innocent, says Shaik

2005-06-02 17:59

Durban - It took eight months of court time, thousands of pages of evidence and several witnesses before the Durban High Court on Thursday finally declared local businessman Schabir Shaik guilty on all charges of fraud and corruption against him.

Despite this a weak-looking Shaik, whose charges all related to irregular financial dealings with deputy president Jacob Zuma, maintained that he was innocent.

"I walk in the light of my Lord. I am innocent. I will hold that view till the day that I meet Him... don't lose faith in our Lord, because I don't."

However, it was not the same man who confidently entered courtroom A last October.

This was a timid Shaik who looked greyer and visibly older than he had at the start of the marathon trial.

Shaik's brother Mo told journalists and members of the public who mobbed them outside the court that the conviction was "not something we expected".

When a stern-looking Judge Hilary Squires pronounced Shaik guilty on charge one of corruption he started sipping water from a glass.

As he moved to count two he put the glass down.

By count three an ashen-faced Shaik just stared at the judge.

Immediately after proceedings his wife Zuleikha ran out of the court room, but soon rejoined him where he was talking to his crestfallen family members inside the court.

Shaik's initial bail of R1 000 was then increased to R100 000 and was paid before he was allowed to leave the court during the lunch break.

When proceedings resumed at 14:15, prosecutor Billy Downer informed the court that they would make an application for the seizure of Shaik's assets.

He was also to hand over his passport to senior special investigator Johan du Plooy at 10:00 on Friday morning when the State would call a witness to give evidence "in aggravation of sentencing".

Du Plooy, who had worked on the case for several years, said it was a relief that the trial was finally over and that the hard work had been a "team effort".

On Wednesday, Squires found there was overwhelming evidence for the case of "general corruption" against Shaik and rejected his version of events relating to the fraud charge.

On Thursday, he also rejected Shaik's explanation on the second corruption charge - which related to his attempts to secure a bribe of R500 000 a year for Zuma from French arms company Thomson-CSF in exchange for protecting the company during investigations into South Africa's multi-billion rand arms deal.

Squires dismissed Shaik's explanation that the money being asked for was in fact meant for Zuma's education trust, describing it as "nothing short of ridiculous".

- SAPA