Publication: Sunday Times Issued: Date: 2007-05-20 Reporter: Paddy Harper

Shaik in Last-ditch Bid to Get Out of Jail

 

Publication 

Sunday Times

Date

2007-05-20

Reporter

 Paddy Harper

Web Link

www.sundaytimes.co.za

 

Fraudster Schabir Shaik’s final bid to get out of jail moves to the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg, on Wednesday.

For two days his counsel will argue that the investigation into his relationship with ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma was flawed, and that his trial for fraud and corruption and his subsequent unsuccessful appeal against his 15-year jail sentence and three convictions all saw his constitutional rights being violated by the state.

His counsel will also raise an argument that trial judge Hilary Squires erred by invoking the minimum sentencing rule, as the offences he was convicted of began before the law was introduced in 1998.

Shaik’s counsel argues that the decision to charge him and not his alleged co-conspirators, Zuma and French arms dealer Thint, together and put them on trial was “irregular and did not meet with the requirement for legality”.

They contend that by not putting Zuma and Thint on the stand, the state had deprived Shaik of potential evidence from the two which could have assisted in proving his innocence.

Shaik was “at a distinct disadvantage in not having the benefit of ... evidence that Zuma and Thint would have tendered”, had they been put on trial together, counsel says.

The state’s responding papers are highly dismissive ­ in fact scathing ­ of these arguments, describing them as a last-ditch attempt to avoid jail.

Shaik’s lawyers, the state says, raised none of these issues at either the trial court or the SCA, something which they would have done had they believed they had any legal basis to do so.

Shaik’s brother Yunis said on Friday that the family still believed in his innocence, but “will fully respect the outcome of the due legal process”.

With acknowledgement to Paddy Harper and Sunday Times.