In yet another twist to the arms deal saga, Economists Allied for Arms Reduction-SA (Ecaar-SA) has announced that it will go ahead with its court action to cancel the multibillion-rand deal without key documents which government was ordered to hand over and now insists are confidential.

If the group's bid is successful, the deal will be declared null and void.

The lobby group's chairman, Terry Crawford-Browne, said yesterday that it had enough documents to proceed.

He turned down an opportunity on Monday to view the documents "surreptitiously or otherwise" they were given to his lawyers for fear of jeopardising the case.

The documents from the international offers negotiating team and the financial working group are believed to contain a warning about the financial implications of the arms deal.

Government said in the Cape Town High Court in March this year that the documents were irrelevant. "Now the state claims that the documents are so confidential that I may not see them, and that Ecaar-SA's legal advisers may not copy them or make notes," said Crawford-Browne.

On March 26, the court ordered that the documents be handed to Ecaar-SA. Crawford-Browne said that national treasury director-general Maria Ramos instructed the court in an "affidavit in compliance", a day before the deadline, that access to the documents be limited to Ecaar-SA's legal advisers. He is still awaiting a response from the court on the matter.

With acknowledgements to Chantelle Benjamin and the Business Day.