Top public interest lawyer and senior counsel Norman Arendse has asked the Bar Council, which he heads, to investigate whether there is truth in allegations that he and the state have colluded to quash a court bid, which he has been leading, to cancel the arms deal.

Because he heads the council he has asked that it appoint outside investigators.

Terry Crawford-Browne, SA head of Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, alleged that Arendse and the state's advocate were cutting a deal to "throw" the case so the government would not be embarrassed before next year's polls. This was "a figment of (Crawford-Browne's) imagination and highly defamatory", Arendse said.

In a long letter, the instructing attorney in the case, Michael Murphy, told Crawford-Browne yesterday he was withdrawing. "To suggest Norman has been somehow corralled by the state is not only ridiculous, it is malicious ... to a person who has done far more public interest work than either you or I are aware of."

With acknowledgements to the Staff Writers and the Cape Times.