Foreign Affairs special adviser Mo Shaik will have to ”face the consequences” if he disclosed confidential intelligence information, the country’s spy bosses warned on Wednesday.
”We won’t stand by and let people go to television stations to make known privileged documents,” advocate George Bizos told the Hefer commission.
Bizos, representing the various intelligence agencies, further told retired judge Joos Hefer that Shaik had requested their permission to disclose confidential documents in his possession.
He was not granted indemnity for this, Bizos assured the judge.
”If he has already put the information in the public domain, he will have to sleep on the bed he made for himself.”
In an earlier submission Bizos had emphasised that it was illegal for any former or current intelligence operative to disclose confidential information without permission.
Hefer was appointed to determine whether National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy. Shaik and fellow former ANC intelligence operative Mac Maharaj publicly confirmed these allegations when it first surfaced.
Hefer has since subpoenaed Shaik to produce documents to prove the claims about Ngcuka — documents allegedly stolen from the National Intelligence Agency.
Bizos argued on Wednesday that Hefer did not have the powers to obtain legally protected information from the agencies. The retired judge would have to find another way to perform his duty.
”He who accuses must prove,” was Bizos’ suggested solution. He was apparently referring to Shaik and Maharaj who have been summoned to testify from Monday.
Shaik’s brother and legal representative, Yunus Shaik, attended Monday’s sitting after a long absence from the commission’s hearings.
He objected to and denied Bizos’ ”categorical” statement that his brother had publicly disclosed the particular documents. – Sapa