{"id":95318,"date":"2026-02-05T10:59:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T10:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial"},"modified":"2026-02-05T11:24:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T11:24:54","slug":"zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial","title":{"rendered":"Zuma Thales Lose High Court Bid on Arms Deal Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Former President Jacob Zuma has incurred another legal blow, this time in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in his matter involving French arms company Thales.<\/p>\n

The court has dismissed an application for leave to appeal by Zuma and the company.<\/p>\n

In June, the court dismissed their application to have the corruption charges against them dropped.<\/p>\n

Thales and Zuma face several counts of fraud, money laundering and corruption relating to the controversial 1999 arms deal.<\/p>\n

In June, Judge Nkosinathi Chili dismissed and application by Zuma and Thales, who argued that the charges against them should be dropped because two of their key witnesses had died and they would not be guaranteed a fair trial.<\/p>\n

Both Zuma and the company challenged this ruling and approached the High Court for leave to appeal, which Chili also dismissed on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

In his ruling, Chili said he is not convinced another court would find that he applied the law incorrectly.<\/p>\n

He said he is not persuaded that there are prospects of success on appeal for Zuma and Thales<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Former President Jacob Zuma has incurred another legal blow, this time in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in his matter involving French arms company Thales. The court has dismissed an application for leave to appeal by Zuma and the company. In June, the court dismissed their application to have the corruption charges against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-95318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nZuma Thales Lose High Court Bid on Arms Deal Trial - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former President Jacob Zuma has incurred another legal blow, this time in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in his matter ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zuma Thales Lose High Court Bid on Arms Deal Trial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former President Jacob Zuma has incurred another legal blow, this time in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in his matter ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-05T10:59:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-05T11:24:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770277777.460103.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Zuma Thales Lose High Court Bid on Arms Deal Trial\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-05T10:59:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-05T11:24:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial\"},\"wordCount\":194,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770277777.460103.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-thales-lose-high-court-bid-on-arms-deal-trial\",\"name\":\"Zuma Thales Lose High Court Bid on Arms Deal Trial - 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