Special feature: Zuma's corruption trial
By Christelle Terreblanche and Karyn Maughan
Former president Thabo Mbeki has broken his silence on claims that Jacob Zuma accused him of a political conspiracy and improper involvement in the arms deal in order to persuade his prosecutors to drop the corruption case against him.
Mbeki's office released a statement after media reports on Thursday claimed that tapped phone conversations between Mbeki and then Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy formed part of Zuma's argument that the corruption case against him was politically motivated.
'Mr Mbeki has, over the years, disputed these claims' "Former president Mbeki wishes to invite anyone who has such evidence to hand it over to the law enforcement agencies so that legal remedies are sought by any party that believes that it may have been unduly compromised," Mbeki's office said.
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"Mr Mbeki has, over the years, disputed these claims and wishes to emphasise that at no stage did he interfere or contemplate interfering in Mr Zuma's case."
Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley, yesterday refused to comment on the "spy phone call" reports, which included a public confirmation by former National Prosecuting Authority head Bulelani Ngcuka that he had been the subject of legally questionable surveillance.
While again stressing that the content of Zuma's submissions to the State were confidential, Hulley would not respond to unsourced reports.
He added he "would also like to say it is a criminal offence for the NPA to leak information", but declined to respond to The Star's queries about whether he was suggesting that the State was responsible for the leaks.
'I don't expect much from the people who run this intelligence agency of this country' Sources in the Zuma camp have previously blamed a "prosecutor who is trying to mess things up" for reports about the NPA's plans to drop the charges against Zuma.
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