Shaik gets new legal team
2006-11-24 20:59
Durban - In a final attempt to clear his name, Durban businessman Schabir Shaik has appointed a new legal team to launch his appeal to the Constitutional Court against his convictions for fraud and corruption.
However, he will have to apply for an extension to do so on Monday, which is the deadline for any appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal's ruling against him two weeks ago.
The judges confirmed the prison terms and hefty fines imposed by Judge Hilary Squires in June last year and Shaik's failure on appeal has left him with an effective prison sentence of 15 years, which he began, serving last week.
The Witness has learnt that Shaik has employed new counsel, prominent advocates Nirmal Singh SC and Hoosen Gani to take his case to the Constitutional Court.
Glaring constitutional issues
A legal source believes that Singh, a constitutional law expert who recently represented French company Thint in Zuma's corruption trial, will argue that Shaik's right to a fair trial has been infringed while advocate Gani, a corporate law expert, will challenge the convictions and hefty fines imposed on the various companies in Shaik's Nkobi Group.
UKZN's law professor Mike Cowling said that Shaik's legal team will probably have to ask for an extension of the deadline bearing in mind that they will have to go through court records which span thousands of pages and covers the evidence of more than 40 witnesses that testified in the trial.
"If there are no glaring constitutional issues it means that these advocates are going to have to scrutinise piles and piles of documents, not unless they stumble upon something. Whatever is raised will be innovation and legally creative," he said.
He added that if there were constitutional issues they would already be in the public.
Asked if the SCA judge's incorrect attribution to the phrase "generally corrupt relationship" describing the relationship between former deputy-president Jacob Zuma and Shaik, to Squires, could be raised as a constitutional point, he said yes.
'Generally corrupt relationship'
He said that what the legal team could argue was that since the judges attributed the phrase to Squires, it will indicate that they were influenced by the media rather than what was in the judgement.
However, he added that what must be considered is that no reference to the statement was made during the course of the appeal and was only made in the forfeiture judgment.
Last month Squires wrote to a weekend newspaper denying using the phrase "generally corrupt relationship" to describe the relationship between Shaik and Zuma in his judgment convicting Shaik.
He wrote the letter after the SCA attributed the words "generally corrupt relationship" to Squires in one of its judgments dismissing Shaik's appeals last month.
It has also emerged that the appeal court, in confirming Shaik's sentence, quoted Squires as saying that Shaik tried to "intensify corrupt activity at the highest level in the confident aspiration that Jacob Zuma may one day be President".