Advocate Dali Mpofu announces plans to call State Prosecutor Billy Downer as a witness in Jacob Zuma's controversial arms deal trial, raising questions about prosecutorial bias and the right to a fair trial.
State prosecutor Billy Downer will be called to testify in former president Jacob Zuma 's trial, his defence said. Picture: Independent Newspapers. Advocate Dali Mpofu said they would be calling State Prosecutor Billy Downer as a witness in Jacob Zuma 's arms deal trial.
"We are going to call Mr Downer as a witness. It's not if, it's not a threat, It's a fact," Mpofu told the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday. Zuma's attorneys applied for leave to appeal Downer's removal as state prosecutor on the case. That is madness; to run the trial would be a waste of time and money.
The question was whether the involvement of Downer in the trial would infringe on Zuma’s right to a fair trial.Zuma accused Downer of prosecutorial bias, in which he believed he would not get a fair trial. Mpofu further argued that a recusal was not a usual request. He said they refused to go through the trial with a"compromised prosecutor."
Advocate Dali Mpofu Jacob Zuma Pietermaritzburg High Court West East Iol News
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