Johannesburg - A senior investigator in the Scorpions is said to have "giggled" when he discovered a copy of the Corruption Act in a file on Jacob Zuma at his attorney's office and then waved the document around in the air.

This is one of the allegations in an affidavit by Julie Mahomed, one of Zuma's attorneys, who will take the Scorpions to court next week to recover all her documents, computer hard drives, DVDs and videos which were confiscated in the Zuma raids.

Mahomed lodged an urgent application of more than 400 pages with Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday and so became the first Zuma confidante to take legal steps against the Scorpions after the raids two weeks ago on 22 properties.

Mahomed's office in Parktown and her flat in Killarney were among the properties searched.

Now she wants the High Court to declare the raids illegal, set aside the warrants and return to her everything confiscated from her premises.

In a strongly worded statement, Mahomed claims the raids have "overwhelmed and humiliated" her and at times she cannot think clearly.

She also criticises Judge President Bernard Ngoepe who issued the warrants in his chambers and calls his actions "ill-considered".

Mahomed said that on the morning of August 18, when the raids were carried out, she was at a school in Johannesburg, seeing a teacher about a relative.

After Mahomed was told of the raids, her son dropped her off at her office.

"The investigators went through all the files in my office.

"I protested to them that the files and all documents in them were subject to attorney-client privilege."

Mahomed said advocate Rachelle van der Walt of the Scorpions refused to stop the search and said the warrant issued to them allowed them to check everything in her office.

She protested vehemently when the Scorpions wanted to go through a "highly confidential" pack of documents concerning a foreign client of hers "who is in the public eye".

She apparently grabbed the documents out of the hands of Herby Heap, a senior special investigator of the Scorpions, when he began reading them aloud.

Mahomed said one male investigator became "very aggressive&" when she resisted the search.

"An investigator, I think Heap, found a file containing a summons issued by a cabinet minister.

"He audibly muttered that it seemed Zuma "wasn't the only one with financial problems", her statement says.

Then about 21 Scorpions searched Mahomed's two-bedroomed flat and confiscated items such as her domestic worker's computer.

A "trolley-full" of sealed goods was handed to the registrar of the High Court.

With acknowledgements to Adriaan Basson and the Beeld.