Bloemfontein: French arms company Thint has told the Supreme Court of Appeal that the warrants the Scorpions used to raid its offices in August 2005 were unlawful as the state kept material facts from the judge who authorised them.

One of these missing facts, said Peter Hodes, SC, for Thint, was that the company had co-operated with the investigation into its dealings with Jacob Zuma and his then-financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.

Hodes said there was nothing to show that the state had asked Alain Thetard, Thint's then-representative in South Africa, to hand over his 2000 diary, alleged by the Scorpions to note a meeting between Thetard, Zuma and Shaik, at which an alleged arrangement to make payments to Zuma was discussed.

The state had adopted a heavy-handed approach, seeking search warrants to raid Thint offices, when it could merely have asked or subpoenaed the company for the documents, Hodes said.

If the judge who signed the warrants had been aware of this, he might possibly not have authorised them.

Wim Trengove, for the state, pointed out there was a letter from Thint's attorneys to the state that proved the National Prosecuting Authority had asked Thetard for the diary on three occasions.

Trengove quoted a letter dated July 12, 2001, from Thint's lawyers as saying "Mr Thetard has informed us he is unable to locate the diary".

This letter had been a response to a third request for the diary, eventually found in a search of Thint's offices in Mauritius, Trengove said.

"To suggest that the judge (who signed the warrants) might have been persuaded that Thint was such a trustworthy citizen and would respond honestly and openly to a subpoena, is absurd," he said.

He acknowledged that Thint had produced "mountains of documents" in its apparent effort to assist the state in its investigations of Shaik, but said it had withheld any evidence that could have been relevant.

Referring to the "duplicity of Thint", he said the company had reneged on a deal struck with the state before the start of Shaik's trial on fraud and corruption charges.

Under the agreement, charges were withdrawn against Thint in exchange for an affidavit from Thetard in which he admitted he was the author of an "encrypted fax" found to be proof of an arrangement to make corrupt payments to Zuma.

After providing this affidavit, Thetard produced a second sworn statement in which he claimed the encrypted fax was a record of his musings that he had thrown away. At Shaik's trial, the state proved this was a lie.

Justice Ian Farlam reserved judgment yesterday.

With acknowledgements to Karyn Maughan, Tania Broughton and Cape Times