South African prosecutors are poised to drop corruption charges against the African National Congress leader, Jacob Zuma, who is expected to be elected president next month, local media said.
The Sunday Independent newspaper in Johannesburg said that the national prosecuting authority (NPA) would withdraw the case this week after fresh evidence of alleged political interference by the administration of former South African president Thabo Mbeki. The decision would be a significant election boost to the ANC, which chose Zuma as its candidate for the April 22 election, although he was due to go on trial in August.
“The evidence in the possession of Zuma’s legal team means acting prosecutions boss Mokotedi Mpshe is expected to bite the bullet and drop the charges against Zuma within days,” the Sunday Independent reported. “Those close to the NPA are ‘very positive’ [that] Mpshe will make a decision after consulting his lieutenants on Monday.”
The case against Zuma, who maintains his innocence, contributed to the ousting of Mbeki and led to a split in the ANC, which has governed the country unchallenged since the end of apartheid. The opposition Democratic Alliance has warned that dropping the case would strongly damage the rule of law.
Prosecutors had charged Zuma with 16 counts of corruption, bribery, money laundering and racketeering involving about 4 million rand (US$422,000). The eight-year legal battle formed part of a wider investigation into a multibillion-dollar government arms deal that resulted in Zuma’s former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, being sentenced to 15 years in jail for bribery before being controversially granted “medical parole” on March 3, after serving 28 months.
Following Shaik’s conviction in 2005, Mbeki sacked Zuma as vice president but saw his rival gain revenge by toppling him as party leader in 2007. In September last year the high court dismissed the case against Zuma on a technicality, suggesting that there had been political interference by Mbeki as part of a power struggle within the ANC. Within days of the judgment Mbeki agreed to quit as president at the party’s request.
The saga took another twist in January when the appeals court rejected the high court decision, saying the judge had “failed to distinguish between allegation, fact and fiction.” Zuma’s lawyers then approached prosecutors with evidence over the role of Mbeki and other government ministers in allegedly influencing the prosecution of their client.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS