Date	2001-09-29
Publication / Reporter	Sapa

A key figure in the controversial R43-billion arms deal is expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Monday, prosecuting authorities said.

Sipho Ngwema, a spokesman for the Scorpions, the elite crime busting unit, said Ian Pierce was let out of custody in Pretoria on  condition he appeared before the court on Monday.

"No, he did not pay any bail," said Ngwema.

Pierce was arrested by the Scorpions in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, on Friday on charges of defying an earlier

subpoena.

He is an accountant and board member of Futuristic Business Solutions, a company which is among many others implicated in the R43-billion arms procurement deal.

Pierce was captured for allegedly contravening Section 28 of the  National Prosecution Authority Act after not providing certain documents to, and appearing before, the arms deal investigators.

On Friday night, he was locked up in a cell in a Pretoria prison  while a prosecutor and a magistrate were to hear his bail application. He was released later the same night, Ngwema said.

A probe into the controversial arms deal is currently underway.

Between 40 to 50 allegations of irregularities and corruption in the process that preceded the signing of contracts are being investigated.