Tough German anti-bribery legislation may have been instrumental in getting top aerospace firm executive Michael Woerfel to return to SA to face trial, the Scorpions said yesterday.

Woerfel, the SA MD of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), made a brief appearance in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court yesterday.

He was released on R10000 bail, and will appear again in January with his co-accused, former African National Congress chief whip, Tony Yengeni. The two face fraud charges relating to the government's R43bn arms deal. Woerfel, whose group won contracts in the deal, arranged a big vehicle discount for Yengeni when he was chairman of parliament's standing committee on defence.

Woerfel has to tell the investigating officer every time he wants to go abroad.

At a Pretoria Press Club luncheon shortly after Woerfel's appearance, the head of the Scorpions, Percy Sonn, said there was a political will among countries trading with SA to co-operate and to share information.

He said: "Do you think that Woerfel just decided to come into the country? "I don't think so, I think there is something in there."

The German legislation, which was passed in 1999, makes it an offence for people in business to offer bribes to legislators and members of parliaments of countries outside Germany. The law provides for imprisonment of up to five years or a fine for those who are found guilty of bribery.

Sonn said there was a mutual understanding among these countries that "the integrity of evidence must be proved", and the source of that evidence must have been obtained legally.

Sonn was speaking after simultaneous raids by the Scorpions unit in Durban, Mauritius and France in a widening of the search for documents relating to the arms deal.

He promised that the probe into the controversial arms deal in SA would not continue beyond the end of October, or that it would be complete by Christmas at the latest.

Yengeni was arrested a week ago and brought before court by the Scorpions in connection with the arms deal scandal and his Mercedes 4x4. He resigned as the ANC's chief whip in Parliament, although repeating earlier denials he had been bribed.

Three government agencies began probing the arms deal in January at the insistence of the SA Parliament.

Meanwhile, Business Day has been unable to confirm a report it carried last week on the arms deal. The newspaper quoted an anonymous source last Friday saying former defence minister Joe Modise, trade and industry department director Vanan Pillay and arms procurement committee chairman Chippy Shaik were to be arrested for their role in the arms scandals.

Asked if this was true, the Scorpions' spokesman, Sipho Ngwema, said yesterday: "I will neither confirm nor deny that."  

With acknowledgment to Bonile Ngqiyaza and Business Day.