South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) has said it will back its leader Jacob Zuma in his attempts to get corruption charges dropped. An ANC spokesperson said the way the case had been handled reinforced ideas that it was a "political trial" and fuelled doubts of a free hearing. Mr Zuma is favourite to become South Africa's president when Thabo Mbeki stands down next year. He denies the charges ranging from money-laundering to racketeering. 'Persecution not prosecution' Mr Zuma is expected to request that the charges against him be thrown out when his trial begins at the High Court in Pietermaritzburg next week. ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte said the ANC would back this move but said the party did not want special treatment for its leader. "We simply seek that he be treated fairly and justly," she told reporters after a meeting of the party's national working committee. But she said that the fact the charges had been widened to include tax matters gave weight to the view that Mr Zuma was being persecuted rather than prosecuted, the South African Press Association reports. "He has been subjected to a vicious and unrelenting trial by media, having been tried and found guilty before his case has even come before court," Ms Duarte is quoted by the Citizen newspaper as saying. Earlier this week Judge Chris Nicholson was appointed to preside over the trial. He is a human rights lawyer, who has been a judge for some 10 years. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court to yet to rule on whether prosecutors can use some evidence against Mr Zuma. His team has argued that his constitutional rights to privacy were violated when investigators raided his home three years ago. Mr Zuma was the country's deputy president before being fired in 2005 when his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik was found guilty of soliciting bribes and jailed for 15 years in connection with an arms deal. Mr Zuma was then put on trial, but the case collapsed in 2006 when the prosecution said it was not ready to proceed - a court had ruled that documents obtained during the raids could not be used by prosecutors because the search warrants used by police were illegal. Last year, the Supreme Court upheld appeals against this ruling, saying that the tens of thousands of pages of seized documents could be used in evidence. Mr Zuma has vehemently denied the corruption charges, and argues that the case is politically motivated. He won a bitter campaign against President Mbeki to become ANC leader last December. Source: BBC