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Jacob Zuma, the man most likely to be South Africa's next president, lashed out Tuesday at his treatment during a long-running corruption scandal, and his supporters warned that blood would flow in the streets if Mr. Zuma was ever convicted.

The threats came after a South African judge announced he would rule Sept. 12 whether to dismiss fraud and corruption charges against the 66 year-old former guerrilla leader who is now president of the ruling African National Congress party.

Judge Chris Nicholson said if he didn't throw out the case, then Dec. 8 would be the provisional starting date for Mr. Zuma's criminal trial on charges that he accepted bribes from a French arms company in a multi-billion-rand (dollar) 1999 arms deal.

Mr. Zuma and his supporters claim the lawsuit is part of a political conspiracy aimed at thwarting his presidential ambitions. He is already campaigning for elections that must be held by mid-2009, and South Africa's constitution bars anyone from running for office if they have been sentenced to more than 12 months in prison.

In a defiant speech to several thousand supporters outside the court, Mr. Zuma vowed to put up a struggle, declaring in Zulu that if he did get sent to jail he wouldn't go alone.

He said if there was a criminal trial he would “call witnesses,” in an apparent reference to his bitter rival, President Thabo Mbeki. Mr. Mbeki sacked Mr. Zuma in 2005 because of the corruption scandal but it has long been rumoured that Mr. Mbeki was also involved.

The Sunday Times last weekend quoted a secret report that Mr. Mbeki accepted 30 million rands (US$4 million at current rates) from a Germany arms company and gave 2 million rands (US$280,000) to Zuma and the rest to the ANC.

Mr. Mbeki's office has dismissed the report as nonsense.

“The truth will be revealed,” Mr. Zuma said, to chants of “30 million! 30 million!” from the crowd. He later launched into the anti-apartheid song that has become his trademark — “Bring Me My Machine Gun” — and the crowd sang along.

“Our president is the target of a political conspiracy and we are convinced that the conspiracy is led by the state president (Mbeki),” the head of the influential ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, told the rally.

Accompanied by loud cheers, Mr. Malema warned the country's judges to keep their hands off Mr. Zuma and demanded that Mr. Mbeki stand down immediately and let Mr. Zuma take over.

“If you touch the old man, you must touch us first. Nobody will arrest Zuma as long as we are alive,” Malema said. “Before you get to him you must kill the youth of this country. We are prepared to die for Zuma.”

His comments were echoed Tuesday by the Young Communist League — and the head of South Africa's main trade union confederation has also uttered similar warnings.

Mr. Zuma has long been under a cloud because of the 1999 French arms deal, but a chief prosecutor decided not to press charges in 2003. Mr. Mbeki fired Mr. Zuma as the country's deputy president in 2005, after Mr. Zuma's financial adviser was sentenced to 15 years in jail for trying to elicit bribes from the French company Thint, formerly Thomson CSF.

New charges were filed against Mr. Zuma in 2005, but these were thrown out in 2006 on a technicality.

Days after Mr. Zuma was elected as the ANC's president last year, the National Prosecuting Authority said it had new evidence, and it filed racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud charges against Mr. Zuma regarding the 1999 arms deal.

On Tuesday, dozens of the ANC's top brass accompanied Mr. Zuma to court in a show of solidarity.

Prosecuting lawyer Wim Trengove told the court some defence objections were “scurrilous and irrelevant,” saying they were made “for public consumption with no bearing on the case.” He rejected Mr. Zuma's claims that the prosecution's case was unlawful and illegal.

Mr. Zuma's lawyer, Kemp J. Kemp, said the prosecution's arguments were “based on a fallacy.”

An ANC statement issued after the hearing said the case raised “critical questions about the right of all citizens to equal protection by the constitution and fair treatment by state institutions.”

The ANC is expected to hold onto its big majority in Parliament during next year's general election, and Mr. Zuma, as its leader, is expected to be the nation's next president.

No date has been set for the vote. However, if Mr. Zuma does go on trial Dec. 8, the trial could last a long time and throw South Africa's political landscape into turmoil.

Still, so far Mr. Zuma's legal battles have not seemed to handicap him — if anything, he has been able to exploit the case, casting himself as a persecuted underdog. On Tuesday, he slammed the media for accusing him of delaying the case and claimed they pronounced him guilty ahead of any court judgment.

“The constitution says you are innocent until proven otherwise,” Mr. Zuma said at the rally. “Why do you judge Jacob Zuma beforehand?”