The state produced a surprise witness in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial underway in the Durban High Court on Wednesday.

A chief police inspector, Pierre Coret, from Mauritius has taken the stand and is testifying about the two counts of corruption against Shaik with the aid of a French translator.

Coret said that in 2001 he was an inspector in the Economic Crimes Office when they received a court order from South Africa requesting assistance in a search and seize operation in Mauritius.

In terms of the order they could enter and search premises. This included the officers of Mutual Trust Management and Thales International Africa Limited, which was situated in the same building.

Coret said Mutual Trust Management was the offshore management company of Thales, which is a French arms company, previously known as Thomson CSF.

Earlier defence advocate Francois van Zyl said he would allow the witness to give testimony because documents relating to the search had previously been mentioned in court.

However, the defence would challenge the admissibility of the documents at a later stage.

Before Coret took the stand, presiding Judge Hilary Squires ruled against a state application for another witness to give evidence via video link from Scotland.

Professor John Lennon cannot come to South Africa before February next year and the state had asked that he be allowed to give evidence via video-linkup on November 23 and 24. However, this would have to be done at the University of KwaZulu-Natal because the court itself did not have such facilities.

On Wednesday Squires said a criminal trial must take place in an open court and that the space at the university would not accommodate everyone, including the media.

However, he said if the necessary facilities could be installed in the court, or be found elsewhere, he would reconsider his judgment subject to opposition from the defence.

Shaik has pleaded not guilty to two charges of corruption and one of fraud. The state also alleges that he used his political connectivity with Deputy President Jacob Zuma to secure a slice of the country's multibillion-rand arms deal, through which his Nkobi Holdings and Thomson CSF benefited.

He is also accused of soliciting a R500 000 per annum bribe for Zuma in exchange for protection during an investigation into arms deal irregularities.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and Independent Online.