The Constitutional Court on Wednesday reserved judgment on African National Congress president Jacob Zuma's bid to have a letter requesting documents from Mauritius ruled invalid.

This follows the court's decision to reserve judgment on Zuma and French arms manufacturer Thint's appeal to have August 2005 search and seizure raids declared invalid.

On Thursday, the court heard that the documents the State is seeking to obtain from Mauritius may never be used against Zuma in a court of law.

State advocate Wim Trengove said evidence gathered "does not automatically become evidence before the court.

"Evidence becomes evidence that the State may or may not tender," he said.

The documents, about Zuma's role in the arms deal, include the 2000 diary of Alain Thetard, former chief executive of Thales International's South African subsidiary Thint (Pty) Ltd.

In April 2007, in the Durban High Court, Judge Phillip Levensohn authorised a letter of request in terms of Section 2(2) of the International Co-operation in Criminal (ICC) Matters Act, which both

Zuma and Thint are appealing.

Trengove rejected the assertion, by Zuma and Thint's legal teams, that the State was not entitled to the letter of request because the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) already had copies of the documents --obtained prior to the 2005 corruption trial of Zuma's former financial adviser Schabir Shaik.

He also rejected the assertion that information gathered in terms of Section 2(2) of the ICC Act could not be used in a criminal trial.

Trengove said that if Section 2(2) was not used to obtain the documents, the State would have to wait for Zuma's trial to begin before attempting to obtain the documents -- and then possibly seek another adjournment while the court waited for the documents.

Kemp argued on Wednesday that the NPA was not entitled to use that section of the Act to obtain the documents.

With acknowledgements to Sapa.