Zuma appeals to Constitutional Court in graft case
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - African National Congress leaderJacob Zuma is asking South Africa's Constitutional Court tostrike down a court ruling allowing documents seized from himand his lawyer to be used in his corruption case.
Zuma, elected president of the ANC in December, is accusedof accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from aFrench arms manufacturer. He is scheduled to go on trial forcorruption, money-laundering, fraud and racketeering in August.
The legal battle is likely to decide whether he succeedsPresident Thabo Mbeki, who is barred from seeking a third termas state president in 2009. Zuma has said he will bow out ofthe race if convicted of the charges.
In a filing provided to Reuters by his lawyer on Thursday,Zuma and defence attorney Michael Hulley argue that prosecutorsand an elite anti-corruption unit violated their rights whenthey raided properties belonging to Zuma and Hulley in 2005.
They said the search warrants used in the raids wereillegal and violated their privacy, property and other rights.
"We submit in the circumstances that constitutional matters(and constitutional matters of substance) are therefore raisedin this application," Zuma and Hulley said in their appealagainst a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling in November.
That court had ruled that the documents seized by SouthAfrica's FBI-style Scorpions crime-fighting unit could be usedagainst Zuma when he went to trial, despite finding someproblems with the warrants.
The Supreme Court also had cleared the way for SouthAfrican prosecutors to use documents from Mauritius said tocontain evidence that bribes were solicited on behalf of Zumain return for using his influence in a government arms deal.
Zuma is appealing that ruling in the Constitutional Court.
A spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, whichhas spearheaded the case against Zuma, declined to comment whenasked about the appeals. Prosecutors have expressed confidencethey will have a strong case when Zuma goes to trial in August.
ARMS DEAL
Zuma and Hulley were in Mauritius on Thursday to hold talkswith authorities, who are deciding whether to hand over thedocuments related to the case to South Africa, according tomedia reports.
A two-day court hearing on the matter is scheduled to beginon the Indian Ocean island on March 11. Lawyers for Zuma andarms firm Thint are trying to block Mauritius from releasingthe documents.
Mbeki fired Zuma as deputy president in 2005 after the armsscandal broke, and Zuma was later charged with bribery andfraud. His corruption case collapsed in 2006 on proceduralmatters, but prosecutors recharged him in late December, 2007.
A protracted legal battle could mean that Zuma's caseeventually overlaps with general elections in 2009, potentiallycausing further political instability in Africa's largesteconomy.
Zuma has spooked investors with his strong ties to labour,communists and other leftists.
His supporters have repeatedly branded the corruption caseagainst him as a conspiracy by Mbeki loyalists. They say stateorgans were used to smear Zuma and deny him the presidency.
The Zuma camp has been particularly angry over the role ofthe Scorpions in the case. In December the ANC, now controlledby Zuma activists, voted to disband the unit afteroverwhelmingly electing Zuma as leader over Mbeki.
The government this week confirmed that the Scorpions wouldbe dissolved. Mbeki defended the move on Thursday in the faceof criticism from opposition parties who claim that the ANC-ledgovernment is trying to protect Zuma from prosecution.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)