The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Monday appealed a decision by the Johannesburg High Court that declared illegal the search-and-seizure raids at the premises of former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s attorney Julekha Mahomed.
”The NPA reiterates its position that the search-and-seizure operations of August 18 2005 were, to the best of its knowledge, legal and enforced with due regard to the law and the rights of those searched, ” NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said.
”The NPA has today [Monday] lodged a notice of intention to apply for leave to appeal against Friday’s decision by the Johannesburg High Court.”
The Johannesburg High Court ruled on Friday that raids by the Scorpions on the office and home of Mahomed were unlawful.
Judge Ismail Hussain said in his judgement that two search warrants for the office and home were obtained and executed unlawfully, and that attorney-client privilege was violated by the Scorpions’ conduct.
The warrants were set aside and the Scorpions were ordered to return all documents, files and objects seized from her premises.
The raids all took place on August 18.
As the result of the pending appeal process, the NPA and Mahomed’s attorneys have agreed that the material seized will remain with the court registrar.
Nkosi said another attorney for Zuma, Michael Hulley, had telephonically demanded that the NPA return all evidential material seized at his premises and those of Zuma.
”The NPA stated its position to Mr Hulley that the evidential material was seized on the strength of search warrants granted by the Pretoria High Court and that the authority would keep the material in terms of the relevant warrants and also in view of the pending appeal process and its possible relevance to Mr Hulley’s matter,” Nkosi said.
”Furthermore, the NPA is of the view that the documents seized at Mr Hulley’s premises were purely of a financial nature and could not have been affected by the attorney-client privilege.”
Hulley said an appeal should be launched by the middle of next week to have the documents returned.
”We are going to proceed with an application to have the documents returned,” he said. ”We are finalising papers and the appeal should be launched by the middle of next week.”
President Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma as South Africa’s deputy president in July after he was found by the Durban High Court to have had a ”generally corrupt” relationship with his financial adviser Schabir Shaik.
Zuma was then charged on two counts of corruption. He is to appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court in October. — Sapa