Jacob Zuma to appeal, case postponed to February

Zuma is facing charges of corruption, money laundering and racketeering linked to the multi-billion rand arms deal.

He was briefly back in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday morning for day one of his trial.

On Friday, Zuma’s application to have a permanent stay of the prosecution was dismissed by the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

Zuma and French arms company Thales both indicated that they intend to appeal the judgment.

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 State prosecutor Billy Downer says the state has agreed to set in motion pre-trial minutes for negotiations adding that an updated forensic report has been handed to all parties.

 Downer suggested April 2020 as the trial date.

 "Depending on the outcome of the application of leave to appeal my learned friend would have considered their positions and made whatever further applications they consider necessary to whatever courts they considered necessary and so by the fouth of February we should have a good idea as to where we are.

 "The state is still pushing for the earliest trial date that could accommodate one and obviously we can't determine that now we'd very like it to be in April 2020."