The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has suffered a blow in the multimillion-rand asbestos corruption case against former Free State premier Ace Magashule after the high court ruled the extradition of his former personal assistant was unlawful.
The Free State High Court delivered a ruling in the trial-within-a-trial involving Moroadi Cholota that her extradition from the US was unlawful.
Cholota is accused alongside Magashule in the asbestos corruption case.
Judge Phillip Loubser said: “What appears pertinently clear and undeniable is that the state presented false and incorrect information to US authorities.
“US authorities relied on the information in good faith and actioned the extradition on an unknowingly unlawful basis,” Loubser said.
Loubser said Cholota's extradition “was unlawful and as such this court is precluded from trying the offences she's charged with, as the unlawfulness of her extradition renders the jurisdiction of the SA criminal court void”.
The charges Cholota was facing relate to a R255m asbestos contract awarded about six years ago by the Free State department of human settlements to the Blackhead Consulting joint venture to audit, assess and remove asbestos from homes in some of the Free State’s poorest areas.
The NPA initially filed for Cholota, who was studying in the US, to be extradited in 2022 after linking her to the corruption case.
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