Karyn Maughan and Alex Eliseev
12 January 2008
Cape Town — Convicted drug dealer Glenn Agliotti gave top cop Jackie Selebi at least R1,2-million, says the Scorpions' 23-page indictment against the national police commissioner.
Selebi will stand trial for corruption and defeating the ends of justice, or attempting to do so.
And his hopes of avoiding the dock were dealt a blow on Friday after a Pretoria High Court judge dismissed his application to urgently halt the Scorpions' investigation against him.
After reading the verdict of a panel set up to review the Selebi case, acting Judge Nico Coetzee said it appeared the elite crime-fighting unit had a prima facie case.
In an affidavit before the court, acting NPA boss Mokotedi Mpshe stated under oath that: "The NPA has decided to charge Selebi with corruption and defeating the course of justice, or attempting to do so and that the indictment against Selebi will be served on him shortly."
But Selebi will not suffer the embarrassment of a public arrest.
Mpshe said: "(Selebi) faces no imminent prospect of arrest I have undertaken that if he is to be charged, he will not be arrested and an arrangement will be reached with his attorney for a date on which he is to appear in court."
In their indictment, made public for the first time, the Scorpions disclosed their evidence against Selebi and accused him of receiving at least R1,2m from Agliotti over a year and a half, starting in 2004. Selebi is further accused of receiving money from slain mining magnate Brett Kebble.
According to Mpshe, the case against Selebi includes:
He said Selebi's "bald claim" that there was no basis for his prosecution was not "only self-serving but also entirely speculative".
"The charges against him are based on a strong prima facie case supported by the testimony of a range of witnesses and corroborated by real evidence."
Witnesses include Pikoli and Agliotti's former girlfriend and secretary Dianne Muller, who told the Scorpions she personally counted the cash that Agliotti gave to Selebi.
Agliotti has done another sensational turnabout. On January 4, he gave a sworn statement to police saying the Scorpions were targeting him as a high-profile case to ensure their survival. He said the Scorpions had forced him to make incriminating statements against Selebi.
Now, in a statement made on Thursday, Agliotti claims he was drunk when the police took him to a secret meeting at a hotel and tricked him into signing a statement he had not even read.
NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali on Friday said prosecutors would not act against Selebi until the progress of his application had been determined.
Mpshe's assurance that Selebi would not be publicly arrested is in stark contrast to this week's arrest of Gerrie Nel, the top Scorpions prosecutor leading the Selebi probe.
Nel was handcuffed in front of his family, forced to change his clothes with police officers standing over him, and was detained in a holding cell for 19 hours.
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