BLOEMFONTEIN: The legal battle between former deputy president Jacob Zuma and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) will continue this week in the Supreme Court of Appeal here.

Security will be tight at the court, where the state will argue in three search and seizure appeal hearings related to investigations against Zuma on consecutive days.

The NPA will try to secure access to some 90 000 documents seized during raids in August 2005 at properties of Zuma, his attorneys, and French arms company Thint (Pty) Ltd.

The seizures were to secure evidence for possible criminal charges against Zuma and Thint, which were pending at the time.

About 250 members of the elite crime-fighting unit of the NPA - the Scorpions - took part in the raids on homes and offices, mainly in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

The appeal hearings continue in spite of a Pietermaritzburg High Court judgment which had struck the state's "pending" case against Zuma off the roll.

Today, the state will appeal against a high court judgment in favour of Johannesburg attorney Julie Mahomed.

The Johannesburg High Court set aside two search warrants, for her office and home, and held that they were unlawful.

Mahomed was Zuma's attorney from time to time and was the author of a loan agreement which came under scrutiny during the trial of Zuma's former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.

Five search and seizure warrants served on Zuma and his current attorney, Michael Hulley, which were declared invalid and unlawful in the Durban High Court, will be argued tomorrow.

In this case, as in the Mahomed matter, the state was ordered to return all items seized and removed from the premises of Zuma and the two attorneys. - Sapa

With acknowledgements to Sapa and Cape Times