The National Prosecuting Authority is still weighing its options regarding the Free State High Court judgment involving the freezing of Gupta assets worth millions of rands.
This is after the NPA missed the two-week deadline on Monday to file papers to appeal the matter.
In May, several Gupta-linked companies and individuals approached the High Court to have their assets worth R250 million unfrozen.
The High Court in Bloemfontein ruled that there was not enough evidence linking the Gupta assets to fraudulent activities at the Estina Dairy Farm Project at Vrede.
The Assests Forfeiture Unit of the NPA had seized 43 Gupta properties as well as luxury cars.
But last month the NPA lost its bid to keep the assets belonging to the Gupta linked companies.
The NPA has however not given up. The Prosecuting Authority is considering other options.
Free State NPA Spokesperson Phaladi Shuping says: “But I want to reiterate that if we make a decision to appeal we still have an opportunity of applying ,which will present to court as to why we are filing notice to appeal against the judgment of the High Court in Free State.”
The NPA believes it’s still has an ace up its sleeve.
Shuping says: “We already made two applications, preservation order and restraints order, and in making those applications we don’t give the court all the evidence that we have. We only present evidence based on a civil matter not on a criminal matter. So that is the view of the people who do not have information to what we have in our docket. But as the NPA we are still convinced that there’s enough evidence that we present to the court, once we start with the criminal trial.”
However the NPA still remains optimistic that Gupta linked companies have a case to answer in court.
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