Sacked deputy president Jacob Zuma is launching a court challenge against the Scorpions next week, contesting the legality of the controversial search and seizure raids which were conducted on his homes and the offices of his legal advisers.
Should he win, the Scorpions will not be able to use the seized documentation against him in his forthcoming trial. It will also be an important psychological victory early in the court proceedings.
It is likely that his lawyers, if successful, will argue that Zuma's right to a fair trial has been compromised, possibly jeopardising his trial.
Zuma is facing two counts of corruption relating to his relationship with his former financial adviser, Durban businessman Schabir Shaik, and to an alleged bribe Shaik organised for him from French arms deal bidder Thomsons/CSF.
Shaik has already been convicted and faces 15 years in jail, pending appeal.
It emerged this week that Zuma could face further charges of money laundering, fraud and tax evasion and that the Scorpions were now looking beyond money he received from Shaik, and are probing all sources of his funding.
The early morning raids by the Scorpions on about 21 offices and homes belonging to Zuma, his legal advisers and his benefactors was earlier condemned by his lawyer, Michael Hulley, as being nothing more than a fishing expedition.
The raids on Hulley's Durban offices and those of Julie Mahomed in Gauteng were widely condemned by the legal fraternity as having serious implications for client confidentiality.
At the weekend, Hulley said that a team of lawyers was sifting through the affidavits on which Pretoria High Court Judge Bernard Ngoepe had authorised the warrants.
On Tuesday night, after a four-hour meeting with Zuma in Johannesburg, Hulley confirmed that he would file papers in court "as early as next week", challenging the authorisation of the warrants and the legality of the raids.
He declined to say on what grounds the application would be made, saying it would become public once the documents were filed with the court.
But he said it was not a matter of getting back documents, although some were necessary for trial preparation. "The search and seizure has far-reaching implications... this is about principles... not about actual documents," he said.
The search warrants, granted by the Pretoria High Court, authorised the seizure from Zuma's homes of any documentation relating to some of the deals in which it is alleged that Zuma assisted Shaik.
The warrant included documents that related to their relationship and business dealings, any notes regarding Zuma's movements, and any meetings he had in connection with the arms deal and bidding companies.
It also authorised the seizure of documentation relating to the relationship he had with other benefactors - including Jurgen Kogl, Nora Fakude-Nkuna and Vivian Reddy - and extended to his personal records, including his tax returns.
Scorpions investigator Johan du Plooy has said in an affidavit that the additional money laundering charges related to allegations that "Zuma was complicit in that he knew that some covert means were being used to channel bribes to him".
The fraud and tax evasion charges related to allegations that he had not declared the payments from Shaik and others to the Receiver of Revenue, nor to parliament.