NKANDLA, South Africa — Former South African President Jacob Zuma turned himself over to authorities early Thursday to start serving a 15-month jail term.
Just minutes prior to the midnight due date for authorities to apprehend him, Zuma left his Nkandla house in a convoy of cars. Zuma chose to hand himself over to authorities to follow the order from the nation’s greatest court, the Constitutional Court, that he must serve a jail term for contempt of court.
“President Zuma has actually chosen to abide by the imprisonment order. He is on his method to hand himself into a Correctional Services Facility in KZN (KwaZulu-Natal province),” stated a tweet published by the Zuma Foundation.
Soon after the South African authorities verified that Zuma remained in their custody.
Zuma’s choice to follow the Constitutional Court order follows a week of increasing stress over his jail sentence.
Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in jail for contempt due to the fact that he defied a court order for him to affirm prior to a judicial commission examining prevalent claims of corruption throughout his time as the nation’s president, from 2009 to 2018.
The Constitutional Court purchased that if Zuma did not willingly hand himself over to the authorities then the authorities must apprehend the nation’s previous president by the end of the day Wednesday.
In a last-minute plea to prevent going to jail, Zuma’s legal representatives had actually composed to the acting chief justice asking for that his arrest be suspended till Friday, when a local court is to rule on his application to hold off the arrest.
Zuma’s legal representatives asked the acting chief justice to provide regulations stopping the authorities from detaining him, declaring there would be a “bias to his life.”
The leading court fulfilled late Wednesday, according to regional reports, however obviously declined Zuma’s demand.
Zuma had actually likewise introduced 2 court procedures to prevent arrest after his sentence recently.
He used at the Constitutional Court for his sentence to be rescinded which application will be heard on July 12.
Political stress have actually increased in KwaZulu-Natal province as an outcome of Zuma’s conviction, sentence and pending arrest. Hundreds of his fans collected at his house over the weekend and promised to avoid his arrest, however they left on Sunday.
The judicial query into corruption throughout his term as president has actually heard damning testament from previous Cabinet ministers and magnates of state-owned corporations that Zuma enabled his partners, members of the Gupta household, to affect his Cabinet visits and profitable agreements. Zuma declined to abide by a court order to appear prior to the commission, which led the Constitutional Court to convict him of contempt and sentence him to jail.
In a different matter, Zuma is standing trial on charges of corruption associated to a 1999 arms offer, where he presumably got allurements from French arms producer Thales. His monetary consultant has actually currently been founded guilty and sent to prison because case.
