A court in South Africa has sentenced former president, Jacob Zuma, to 15 months in prison for contempt.
The constitutional court, on Tuesday, found Zuma guilty of contempt following his refusal to appear before a graft panel.
“The Constitutional Court can do nothing but conclude that Mr Zuma is guilty of the crime of contempt of court,”
Sisi Khampepe, the judge, said.
The ex-president had defied an order by the court in January to appear at an inquiry into corruption while he was president.
The 79-year-old was forced to step down as president in 2018 over corruption allegations, which he is being tried for as it involves a $5 billion arms deal in the late 90s.
In January, Zuma, who is facing a 16-count charge of racketeering, corruption, fraud, tax evasion and money laundering, pleaded “not guilty”.
In 1999, the South African government announced its largest-ever post-apartheid arms deal, signing contracts totalling 30 billion rand ($5 billion), to modernise its national defence force.
The deal involved companies from Germany, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France and South Africa.
The former president is alleged to have sought bribes from French arms manufacturer, Thales, to support an extravagant lifestyle.
He was first charged in 2005 and his financial adviser at the time was found guilty of soliciting those bribes.
Zuma was later sacked as deputy president.
However, in a controversial manner, the case was dropped by prosecutors and Zuma went ahead to become the president in 2009.
In October 2017, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that Zuma must face the charges preferred against him.
In total, he is accused of accepting 783 illegal payments.
The former president blamed his political enemies in the African National Congress (ANC) party for his troubles.
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