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JOHANNESBURG, Jan 16 (PTI) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday won a plea to block a private prosecution brought against him by his predecessor Jacob Zuma until an application to dismiss it is heard.
In an unprecedented legal situation, Zuma, ousted in 2018 by the ruling African National Congress, had planned to privately indict Ramaphosa on criminal charges, allegedly as an accessory in Zuma’s case against the top state prosecutor, advocating reporter Billy Downer and reporter Karin Moon.
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Zuma claims the pair leaked his medical records, which were used as evidence in his arms-dealing corruption trial, which has been going on for nearly two decades. Zuma and the French company Thales have been facing criminal charges related to alleged corruption in the 1999 arms deal.
The charges against Zuma include racketeering and money laundering, as well as 12 counts of fraud.
Zuma was first indicted in June 2005, but efforts to prosecute him have been delayed by numerous legal challenges from his side.
Analysts said Zuma’s latest move was another in a series of moves he has taken to delay the trial as long as possible.
Zuma’s private prosecution is due to be heard in court on Thursday, but Ramaphosa has filed an emergency injunction application to stop that from happening.
The full bench of the South Gauteng High Court, led by Associate Justice Roland Sutherland, found that President Ramaphosa’s lawyers had demonstrated the urgency.
The court granted the injunction.
“As far as the balance of convenience is concerned, the defendant would not be harmed if the private prosecution was delayed in order to argue the issues raised in this judgment,” Sutherland said in sentencing on Monday.
“As previously stated, the trial of the alleged principal has not yet commenced. There, a conviction is a necessary condition for applicants to be held criminally responsible,” Sutherland said.
Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for Ramaphosa, said in a statement that the court confirmed all of the president’s main arguments regarding the court’s jurisdiction to hear the injunction application.
“The Court further ruled in favor of the President on a prima facie flawed subpoena that violated the right to personal liberty.
“The verdict confirms the President’s position that the private prosecution was based on false and baseless allegations with ulterior motives, constituted an abuse of the private prosecution provision and blatantly disregarded the law,” Magwenya added.
Ironically, Ramaphosa, who came to power after Zuma’s ouster, was ordered to go to his home in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2018 to inform him of the ANC’s decision to remove him as president after Zuma’s repeated refusal to step down. This comes after a public outcry over Zuma’s alleged corruption.
As vice president at the time, Ramaphosa took over the presidency. After the subsequent General Elections in 2020, Ramaphosa was elected as president for a five-year term.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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