Why Selebi’s court bid backfired

According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, Judge Nico Coetzee said Selebi\'s application bore no merit and it was struck off the roll. He said that the administration of justice would be brought into disrepute if Selebi was not prosecuted. Selebi\'s lawyer, Advocate Jaap Cilliers, had described the charges against Selebi as being ‘very vague allegations’. He told the court the decision to prosecute Selebi was unlawful and would further tarnish his reputation, to which Coetzee replied: ‘His reputation is tarnished already.’ In an answering affidavit, Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe said the charges relate to Selebi\'s relationship with murder accused Agliotti and payments by Agliotti of more than R1.2m to Selebi in 2004 and 2005. The charges are based on Selebi turning a blind eye to Agliotti\'s involvement in transporting a large quantity of Mandrax; interventions Selebi made on behalf of Agliotti; and confidential intelligence reports released from British authorities relating to drug-trafficking activities of Agliotti. The NPA said Selebi tipped Agliotti off that he had been identified in the course of the Brett Kebble murder investigation. Full Mail & Guardian Online report

The Scorpions are to meet Selebi’s legal team today to make arrangements for the Commissioner to be formally charged. Selebi’s court bid backfired because it forced the Scorpions to reveal the full extent of their case against him, notes the Sunday Times. The NPA is expected to hand Selebi a lengthy indictment this week, which covers an 18-month period during which he is alleged to have received ‘unauthorised gratification’ from Agliotti. Some of the allegations Selebi will have to answer include: * Asking Agliotti to give him R1m in December 2004 as he was broke. Agliotti said he would make a plan but could not give it all to him at once. He later forked out R310 000. * Asking Agliotti for R30 000 so he could host a dinner in France to impress and lobby Interpol delegates to vote him into the top job. * Meeting, in full uniform, the Swiss lawyer of fugitive Billy Rautenbach and promising to help cancel his international warrant of arrest. Rautenbach gave Agliotti R40 000 to pay Selebi for getting the job done. * That murdered mining tycoon Brett Kebble paid Agliotti R10m for introducing him to Selebi. * That Agliotti paid him at least R1.2m over a period of 18 months in exchange for favours. Evidence submitted to court showed how the company’s bank statements, cheques and counterfoils listed payments to Selebi as ‘cash cop’ and ‘cash chief’. Full Sunday Times report

In an interview with the Scorpions, Selebi described Agliotti as a close friend who was always prepared to listen to his problems. The Sunday Times also reports on how the allegedly corrupt relationship between the two developed and how the many payments to Selebi were made The Scorpions interview The developing relationship How the money was paid

Selebi denies having engaged in any criminal activities and says the case against him is a result of the Scorpions fighting for its survival following the ANC decision that the investigating arm be merged with the police while the prosecutions remain with the NPA. According to a City Press report he has accused Scorpions’ boss, Leonard McCarthy, of being controlled by former NPA boss Bulelani Ngcuka, who he claims has a vendetta against him. Ngcuka has denied the claim. Full City Press report

Selebi has been given an extended leave of absence and has resigned from Interpol. President Thabo Mbeki said Selebi had requested the leave himself. A report on the IoL site says Mbeki has appointed Timothy Charles Williams, Deputy National Commissioner responsible for Crime Intelligence and Detection, as the acting National Commissioner of Police. A second report on the IoL site says Selebi has resigned as president of Interpol to fight the corruption allegations. Interpol said they had received a letter from Selebi which made clear that his decision was ‘made in the best interests of Interpol and out of respect for the global law enforcement community that it serves’. The organisation also praised Selebi for his work. First report on the IoL site Second report on the IoL site

Mbeki claims he knew nothing of any wrongdoing by Selebi until ‘a few days ago’. This, notes the Sunday Times, is despite the fact that the suspended head of the NPA, Vusi Pikoli, handed Mbeki a top secret report detailing allegations against Selebi early last year. Early last year Mbeki told a gathering of religious leaders that they should ‘trust’ him to take action on Selebi if there was a need to do so. He repeated the statement following Pikoli’s suspension last September. Mbeki said yesterday he was aware of the investigation into Selebi and that the NPA had kept him informed. Asked whether he had not seen any wrongdoing on the part of Selebi, Mbeki said: ‘I have said this before many times, that if anybody had information that the national commissioner had done wrong things, I would act on it. Nobody did. Nobody came with information. When the NPA came to me to say they were going to act, I said, ‘Fine, that’s your duty’.’ Full Sunday Times report

Agliotti has refuted an affidavit he signed supporting Selebi\'s application. In an affidavit attached to the NPA\'s answering documents, Agliotti says part of the affidavit was made after he had consumed a substantial amount of wine, says an SABC News report. According to Agliotti, he believed he could negotiate a better deal than the suspended sentence he received on drug trafficking charges on condition that he testifies for the NPA. Although he signed it he says he was never given the opportunity to check the document and was led to believe it would never be made public. Agliotti says he was the one who approached the Scorpions with a view to co-operate. The Sunday Times describes this about-face as a giant blow to Selebi, as he had not known of Agliotti’s decision to trade allegiances and retract the 4 January statement he had made to the police. Titled JS2 in the court record, Agliotti’s four-page statement made damning claims against the Scorpions, claiming they were out to tarnish his reputation while also trying to discredit Selebi in order to destablise the country. He said he signed the original statement at a meeting with a group of people, including the Director-General of National Intelligence Manala Manzini, and deputy head of police intelligence Assistant Police Commissioner Mulangi Mphego. He did so believing that it would help secure him indemnity in his pending criminal matters. Full SABC News report Full Sunday Times report

However, another Agliotti affidavit could open the way for the prosecution of a number of people, including senior police officials and high profile businessmen. A Business Day report notes the 20-page affidavit is a key part of the NPA case against Selebi. It gives weight to allegations about Selebi’s links to the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble, his interference in tenders for vehicles, cellphones and bulletproof jackets for the police and his involvement in the Tigon investigation. Shareholders lost R250m when financial services group Tigon collapsed in 2002. Full Business Day report

The Mail & Guardian has strongly objected to allegations made about it in an affidavit by Selebi supporting his court application. In Selebi’s affidavit, he argued that the Scorpions\' case against him was nothing more than a scandalous plot. The Scorpions were fighting for their survival and had launched a media campaign against him in a bid to discredit him, he claimed. A Mail & Guardian statement said Selebi made a number of claims regarding the newspaper. It quotes him as claiming: \'I have received information that members of DSO even went on a so-called \'bosberaad\' with members of the media, more in particular members from the M&G, to discuss and structure this campaign against me.‘ The M&G said: ‘This is absolutely untrue and an allegation for which the Commissioner provides not a shred of evidence. The allegations are deeply damaging to our credibility. We would expect the National Commissioner to have a better understanding of the sanctity of a sworn statement.’ In his affidavit, Selebi also claimed: ‘When evaluating the reports in the media, in particular the M&G, the only logic conclusion is that the media was provided with information from inside sources within the NPA and DSO.’ The M&G claims that this is a serious distortion. ‘Since the second half of 2005, when the M&G started investigating the relationship between Selebi and Glenn Agliotti, the M&G has relied on a wide array of sources, on and off the record,’ said the newspaper. Full Selebi affidavit (PDF) Full M&G media statement (PDF)