Zuma, Thales lose High Court bid to do away with arms deal trial

Former President Jacob Zuma has incurred another legal blow, this time in the Pietermaritz 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 them dropped.

Thales and Zuma face several counts of fraud, money laundering and corruption relating to the controversial 1999 arms deal.

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.

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

In his ruling, Chili said he is not convinced another court would find that he applied the law incorrectly.

He said he is not persuaded that there are prospects of success on appeal for Zuma and Thales