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Zuma loses documents case
05/06/2007 14:03 - (SA)
Durban - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is allowed to retrieve documents from Mauritius relating to arms deal corruption allegedly involving Jacob Zuma.
Judge Jan Hugo of the Durban High Court gave his ruling on Tuesday granting the NPA permission to continue to proceed with a letter of authorisation which had been granted earlier in the year by Judge Philip Levensohn.
The documents include the 2000 diary of Alain Thetard, the former chief executive of Thales International's South African subsidiary Thint Ltd, which details a meeting in March 2000 between him, Zuma and convicted Durban businessman Schabir Shaik. The NPA alleges that an agreement on a R500 000 a year bribe for Zuma was reached at the meeting.
However, Hugo also ordered that the documents be kept under lock and key - either at the Registrar of the High Court or by the South African High Commission to Mauritius - until the outcome of an appeal expected to be heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein on September 21.
In his ruling, Hugo said that in the interest of justice a "speedy start" should be made to obtain the 14 documents sought by the NPA. He also rejected claims that Zuma would suffer irreparable damage to his reputation in Mauritius.
He said that by insisting that the documents be kept "sealed and under lock and key" the September 21 appeal would not "become moot," as advocate Nirmal Singh had argued on behalf of Thint.
The costs of the execution order he said should be decided by the appeal court.
Speaking after the decision was handed down, NPA spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said: "We are quite relieved, even with all the conditions."
He repeated an earlier statement by the NPA that no decision had so far been made to charge Zuma, deputy president of the African National Congress. He said evidence including the Mauritius documents, was being "marshalled" to allow the director of public prosecutions, Vusumzi Pikoli, to decide whether to prosecute or not.
"We have never taken any decision to recharge the ANC deputy president."
Lesufi said he was "anticipating a legal challenge" in Mauritius to the NPA obtaining the documents.
During argument before Levensohn, the court hear that Thint's parent company, Thales International, had obtained an injunction in Mauritius against the documents being released out of fear that information not relevant to Zuma's case would be released.
State prosecutor Billy Downer told the court in March that NPA accepted they would need to approach the Mauritius court to lift the injunction and that could only be done with the letter of authorisation.
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