A South African court on Tuesday rejected former president Jacob Zuma’s plea to have the prosecutor in his arms deal corruption trial removed, reported Reuters. The trial is in connection with a 1999 arms deal with five European companies.
Zuma, who was ousted by the ruling African National Congress in 2018, had asked that the prosecutor, Billy Downer, be removed from the case. He argued that Downer was neither independent nor impartial. He accused the prosecutor of being biased against him and leaking his medical records to the media. He submitted a special plea to the Pietermaritzburg High Court to have him replaced.
The 79-years-old former South African president pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption, money laundering and racketeering in the long-running case over the deal for military equipment. read more
Judge, Piet Koen, who sits in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court in the southeast of the country, told a hearing attended by Zuma that the special plea has been dismissed as he was not persuaded that Mr. Downer is not fit to prosecute or should no longer be a prosecutor.
“It is obviously in the interests of all the parties – the accused, the state representing the general public – that this matter be resolved as soon as is reasonably possible. It has been hanging around too long,” the South African judge said.
He gave Zuma a date of April 11, 2022 for the resumption of the long trial.
Zuma is accused of taking bribes from the French company Thales, and is facing 16 counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering. The trial began in May after years of postponements and delays. He was briefly jailed earlier this year for contempt of court for refusing to appear at a separate corruption inquiry.
However, the former South African head of state was released from prison in September after being hospitalized for an undisclosed condition.
