Jacob Zuma, former South African president, sentenced to 15 months in prison

Jacob Zuma, former president of South Africa, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court.

Zuma, on Tuesday, was found guilty of contempt of court 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 former president had defied an order by the constitutional court in January to appear at an inquiry into corruption while he was president.

The 79-year-old Zuma was forced to step down as president in 2018 over corruption allegations.

He is being tried for corruption involving 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 ($5bn; £2.5bn) to modernise its national defence force.

The deal involved companies from Germany, Italy, Sweden, the UK, 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.

But in a controversial manner, the case was dropped by prosecutors and Zuma went ahead to become the president in 2009.

In October 2017, the 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 legal troubles.