Former president Jacob Zuma has done what he promised and filed yet another application for the recusal of lead advocate in his arms deal corruption case, Billy Downer.
At the brief hearing before Chili on Monday, Downer said Zuma’s latest application had only been given to the state in an “incomplete form” last Thursday. The state had received the final “voluminous” application, “some 73 pages long, with volumes and volumes of annexures” on Sunday.
“We would have liked the trial to have begun today. But we have all agreed that this application needs to be dealt with properly.” While Chili set a timetable for the further filing of papers, unlike Koen, he did not set down future dates for the continuation of the trial, as requested by Downer who wanted the last term of this year and first term of next year to be set aside “given the long delays, four years, on the roll, and unresolved”.Zuma’s advocate Dali Mpofu said: “We are quite sympathetic to the position of the state, but it cuts both ways.
He asked that Zuma be excused from the hearing of his application in August. A representative of Zuma’s co-accused, French arms company Thales, has also been excused from the hearing. Zuma and Thales are facing charges of racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud relating to the arms deal. Zuma is accused of receiving about R4m via his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik to assist Thales to secure defence contracts. Shaik was convicted in 2005 but was released on medical parole in 2009. Both have pleaded not guilty.
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