Tapes used to drop corruption charges against South Africa president released

PRETORIA, South Africa – Taped phone conversations and documents about dropped corruption charges against South Africa's president have been released to the opposition party.

The conversations were cited as a reason fraud and corruption charges were dropped against Jacob Zuma before he was became president in 2009. Helen Zille, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, said Thursday the records will be reviewed to see if the charges were legitimately dropped. The Supreme Court of Appeals ordered their release last week.

Prosecutors said the taped conversations showed there was a political conspiracy against Zuma.

Zuma, then deputy president, was accused of accepting bribes to thwart an investigation into a French arms company involved in a weapons deal in the late 1990s.

The taped conversations were allegedly between prosecutors and a head of a crime-fighting unit.