JOHANNESBURG: Among the 14 bags of documents seized from Jacob Zuma's former attorney are highly confidential files linked to an "overseas figure in public life" - and he is desperate to get them back.

But, while attorney Julekha Mohamed claims the unnamed individual is in no way related to the state's investigation into the ANC deputy president, the National Prosecuting Authority begs to differ.

Counsel for the state Wim Trengove, SC, speaking in the Supreme Court of Appeal yesterday, denied the Scorpions had taken "irrelevant" documents when it conducted its August 2005 raids on homes and offices belonging to Zuma, his attorneys and French arms company Thint.

And, he said, the fact that the disputed documents involved "other clients" did not preclude them from investigation.

Trengove was not impressed by the argument made by Mohamed's advocate Neil Tuchten, SC, in which he claimed Mohamed's "unrelated clients" had the right to have their private documents held by no one but her.

Pointing out that Mohamed herself had admitted to suffering numerous burglaries at her offices, Trengove suggested the disputed documents might well be safer if they were sealed and kept under tight security by a court registrar.

So sensitive are the "unrelated client" documents, Tuchten said, that the individuals involved did not wish to go to court to apply for their release, as doing do would reveal their identities.

According to Trengove, however, Mohamed could make such an application on her clients' behalf.

Mohamed - who testified in Zuma's rape trial - first hit the headlines when she appeared as a defence witness for convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik in 2005. Today, the state will challenge Zuma and his attorney, Michael Hulley's, High Court success in fighting the raids.

With acknowledgements to Karyn Maughan, Tania Broughton and Cape Times