South African former president Jacob Zuma’s long-running corruption trial has been postponed to next month, reported Africa News.
“The trial is adjourned to 10 to 13 August,” Judge Piet Koen ruled on Tuesday as the ex-president sought to have the case postponed because of the pandemic and recent unrest.
On Monday, Zuma appeared virtually in the Pietermaritzburg High Court from his prison, where he is serving a 15-month prison term for contempt of court on an unrelated matter.
The former South African president’s lawyers had applied to have the case postponed by up to three weeks because of the ongoing unrest and the coronavirus pandemic to allow time for the trial to resume physically. They argued Zuma had a right to appear in person during the trial.
The 79-year-old faces 16 charges of fraud, corruption, and racketeering related to the 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats, and military gear from five European arms companies when he was serving as the deputy president.
He is also accused of taking bribes from French defense company, Thales, which has been charged with corruption and money laundering.
The trial, which began in May, was marred by repeated delays as Zuma failed to turn up. The court found him guilty on June 29 for contempt of court for disobeying a Constitutional Court order to testify before a judicial panel conducting a separate probe of corruption during his presidency. The South African court sentenced him to a 15-month jail term and asked him to surrender himself to the police.
His imprisonment resulted in days of protests, looting, and arson, predominantly in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal, as well as nearby Gauteng province. The unrest left at least 200 people dead.
Zuma’s nine-year-long presidential tenure, which ended in 2018, was stained by corruption scandals. Cyril Ramaphosa replaced him as the South African president in 2018.
