Former South African President Jacob Zuma on the Excessive Court docket in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, on Jan. 31, 2022. (Jerome Delay / AP)
JOHANNESBURG --
The corruption trial in South Africa of former President Jacob Zuma has been postponed once more on Monday pending the end result of the ex-leader's enchantment to get the state prosecutor faraway from his case.
Zuma was not current within the Pietermaritzburg Excessive Court docket because of a "medical emergency," his lawyer Dali Mpofu informed the courtroom.
His authorized representatives requested that the beginning of the trial be postponed till the Supreme Court docket of Attraction decides on Zuma's effort to have state prosecutor Billy Downer faraway from the case. Zuma accuses Downer of bias in opposition to the ex-leader.
The case is about to renew on Could 17.
The delay is the newest of many because it has been practically 17 years since Zuma was first charged with corruption, fraud and cash laundering associated to South Africa's controversial 1999 arms deal.
He's charged alongside French arms producer Thales, which is accused of paying bribes to Zuma by means of his former monetary advisor Schabir Shaik, who was convicted on associated prices in 2005.
South Africa's Nationwide Prosecuting Authority opposed the appliance for the postponement, accusing Zuma of delaying ways to stop the beginning of the trial.
Whereas Zuma has publicly mentioned he needs his day in courtroom, he has over time launched quite a few authorized actions which have delayed the beginning of the trial.
Delivering his judgment on Monday, Excessive Court docket Choose Piet Koen mentioned whereas the delay of the trial may result in frustrations, the present delay was unavoidable because the courtroom needed to await the Supreme Court docket of Attraction's resolution.
Zuma, 79, is presently on medical parole on a 15-month jail sentence following his conviction final 12 months of contempt of courtroom for defying a Constitutional Court docket order to seem earlier than a judicial fee investigating corruption throughout his presidential time period from 2009 to 2018.
Zuma was imprisoned in July final 12 months which set off days of rioting within the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces through which outlets, warehouses and factories have been looted and lots of burned. Greater than 300 individuals died within the unrest.
About three months later Zuma was launched on medical parole, for an undisclosed well being situation. A subsequent courtroom judgment dominated the medical parole was invalid, however his attorneys are interesting that judgment.
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