Publication: The Star Issued: Date: 2006-11-27 Reporter: Staff Reporter Reporter: Reporter:

Shaik Poised to Challenge His Conviction

 

Publication 

The Star
Date

2006-11-27

Reporter

 Staff Reporter

Web Link

www.thestar.co.za

 

Durban businessman Schabir Shaik, who is serving a 15-year jail sentence for fraud and corruption, is poised to launch a Constitutional Court appeal against his convictions, sentence and forfeiture of R33,7-million in assets *1.

While his lawyer, Reeves Parsee, refused to confirm or deny this yesterday, Trevor White of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the court-appointed curator who is tasked with handling the asset forfeiture, confirmed that he had received this information in a letter from Parsee on Friday afternoon.

Shaik had until Friday - 15 working days after the Supreme Court of Appeal confirmed his conviction and sentence - to lodge a notice with the court of his intention to appeal.

Shaik began serving his sentence early this month, and his lawyers were reportedly studying the lengthy SCA judgment trying to find constitutional issues on which to appeal.

White said yesterday that Parsee had indicated in the letter that Shaik now intended appealing everything but would be ready to launch the action only about December 15. At the same time, he would have to ask the court for condonation for the late filing of the application.

White said Parsee had indicated that he had briefed a new counsel to deal with the matter and they needed more time to prepare the documents for the appeal.

"In the letter, he asked me not to pursue getting a realisation order against the assets because, in the light of the planned appeal, they would have to oppose it.

"I intend consulting with the Asset Forfeiture Unit before making a decision on what to do," he said.

With acknowledgement to The Star.


*1       If Shaik goes (and so far he's a goner), then as sure as eggs, Zuma and Thint go. So it is imperative for the latter to implore upon the former to clutch at whatever straw there is.

Indeed a most serious matter for Thint is losing their 60% share of ADS. If Shaik's 20% is worth R33,7 million then they stand to lose R101 million.

In the greater scheme Thint stands to lose far more: in the South African defence short term market there's a massive medium support contract coming up for grabs to support the corvette, submarines and other vessels. Then there's the combat suite for the 5th corvette which has been approved in principle and is worth about R1 to R1,5 billion. Then there's the GBADS ground-based air defence system in which ADS has a goodly share of a multi-billion Rands system which will grow in value to some R20 billion to R50 billion over the next 20 years.

Alain Thetard and Jean-Paul Perrier did not pay Jacob Zuma 500 kZAR per year for permanent support of future projects for nothing.

Now Billy Downer and his merry men and colleagues in the AFU has put some flies in Thint's oinkment.

Lastly, once Thales International is found guilty of corruption for the first time in its piggy life, it's going to have an even oinkier effect on getting business in the North American and non-domestic European markets.