Police rejected reports on Tuesday that it was investigating large-scale gun-running to Iraq by a Finnish fugitive extradited to his home country last month.
A representative for national police commissioner Jackie Selebi said there was no evidence to link convicted fraudster Sven Peter Fryckman to gun running. The man was deported on December 12.
Director Sally de Beer said certain documents found in Fryckman’s possession at the time of his arrest in November have been studied by the police’s crime intelligence division and did not support the claims made.
She said they were found to include personal letters and extracts from defence and armaments magazines.
”There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that any such transaction took place and one has to consider the type of crime Fryckman is alleged to have committed in his home country,” De Beer said.
”There is no documentation from, or purporting to be from any foreign government. No arms or weapons were found on Fryckman at the time of his arrest.”
On Monday it was reported that Western Cape police were investigating large-scale gun-running to Iraq after detectives discovered a multi-million dollar ”shopping list” for hi-tech military equipment in the Fresnaye home of Fryckman.
The reports said the probe had been revealed by a Cape Argus investigation which also established police had not at first reported the find to national police authorities.
When detectives arrested convicted fraudster Fryckman, sought by the Finnish authorities to serve his jail term, they found documents showing communications between him and an Iraqi.
According to the reports, Fryckman had been involved in a huge share deal scam and generated a large profit which he shifted rapidly out of the reach of the tax authorities.
Fryckman fled Finland and hid in South Africa and Zimbabwe. But when he sneaked back into his home country in 2001 for his father’s funeral, he was again arrested.
Earlier Fryckman had been sentenced to 30 months in prison for fraud committed in 1994, but the Finnish Supreme Court suspended the sentence pending an appeal.
Fryckman jumped bail and again fled to Cape Town, where he lived a life of luxury until South African police caught him out gambling at the GrandWest Casino last November. – Sapa