Former South African President Jacob Zuma will be able to attend the resumption of his corruption trial next week, despite being jailed in a separate case, a judge ruled on Wednesday.
Read also: South Africa: resumption of the Zuma trial under high security
The trial in this more than twenty-year-old bribe case, which also involves the French group Thales, will resume on Tuesday August 10 "
in open court
" in the court of Pietermaritzburg, the capital of the province of Zwazulu-Natal, said Judge Piet Koen.
Last month, Zuma, 79, appeared from his Estcourt prison, a hundred kilometers away, in a short virtual hearing, in order to avoid further violence.
It was indeed the announcement of his imprisonment - for having systematically refused to appear before a commission investigating corruption under his presidency that triggered the first violence that degenerated into riots and large-scale looting in the country in mid -July.
The defense of the former president wanted "
face-to-face
"
His lawyers had argued that the virtuality of the hearings deprived their client of his constitutional rights, in particular that of being able to consult his defense team.
They had thus requested a postponement so that the hearing could take place in "
face-to-face
".
Read also: South Africa: Zuma's imprisonment triggers riots
After multiple postponements and twists and turns, now spanning decades, Mr. Zuma faces sixteen counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering related to the purchase, in 1999, of military equipment from five companies. European armaments, while he was vice-president.
He is accused of having pocketed more than four million rand (or 235,000 euros at the current rate), in particular from Thales which was one of the companies awarded the juicy contract with a global value of around 2.8 billion euros. The French defense giant is also being prosecuted for corruption and money laundering. Mr. Zuma, like Thales, has always denied these accusations.
