South African court orders ex-president Jacob Zuma to jail for contempt: NPR

[ad_1]

Former South African President Jacob Zuma, shown here in 2019, was convicted of contempt of court. Michele SpatariI / AP Hide Caption

Switch caption Michele SpatariI / AP

Former South African President Jacob Zuma, shown here in 2019, was convicted of contempt of court.

Michele Spatari I/AFP

JOHANNESBURG – Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before an investigation investigating widespread allegations of corruption during his tenure from 2009 to 2018.

Zuma did not appear in court for Tuesday’s ruling and was ordered to surrender within five days to a police station in his hometown of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province or in Johannesburg.

If Zuma fails to turn himself in within five days, the South African Police Minister and Police Commissioner have been ordered to arrest him within three days.

This is the first time in South African history that a former president has been sentenced to prison.

The country’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, has ruled that Zuma defied an order by the country’s highest court by refusing to cooperate with the inquiry, which is chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zundu.

“In the opinion of the Constitutional Court, there can be no doubt that Mr. Zuma despise the Court. Mr. Zuma has been informed of the matter and it is impossible to infer anything other than that he was fully aware of what it required of him,” said Acting Chief Justice Sisi Kambi.

She added that in determining Zuma’s prison sentence, the court found it impossible to conclude that he would comply with any other order.

“Mr Zuma has repeatedly stated that he would rather be imprisoned than cooperate with the commission or comply with the order,” said Campebe.

Zuma had previously expressed his unwillingness to appear before the committee, which has so far heard evidence implicating Zuma directly in wrongdoing.

In an earlier 21-page letter written to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mojong, which the court called “obscene,” Zuma claimed he was willing to send him to prison.

In his letter to the public, Zuma claimed that the chair of the commission, Zondo, was biased against him and that the evidence presented against him was politically motivated.

Some former cabinet ministers, high-ranking government officials and executives of state-owned enterprises were among the witnesses implicating Zuma in corruption.

Many testified that while President Zuma had allowed members of the controversial Gupta family to influence his appointments to cabinet ministers and lucrative contracts in state-owned enterprises,

Zuma also faces additional legal problems while on trial to face charges relating to bribery allegedly obtained during an arms purchase in South Africa in 1999.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and his attorneys have asked the lead prosecutor in his case to step down due to alleged bias against Zuma.

[ad_2]