‘How Selebi shielded Agliotti’

Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi allegedly tipped off his friend, Glenn Agliotti, about a British drugs probe involving him.

The allegation, in a statement by former Agliotti associate Clinton Nassif, sheds new light on the defeating the ends of justice charge the Scorpions wanted to bring against Selebi.

The Scorpions obtained a warrant of arrest last month for Selebi, which was withdrawn after President Thabo Mbeki suspended national prosecutions head Vusi Pikoli. The intended charges also included corruption, fraud and racketeering.

Selebi has admitted a friendship with Agliotti, but repeatedly denied knowing of his involvement in crime. After Agliotti’s arrest for Brett Kebble’s murder in November last year, Selebi reportedly said: ‘I don’t know of his alleged criminality. He didn’t tell me about it.”

Nassif’s statement strengthens evidence that Selebi was aware of Agliotti’s criminal activities and suggests he protected him.

Nassif, like Agliotti, has admitted a role in Kebble’s ‘assisted suicide”. He told all in an affidavit to the Scorpions after they arrested him on insurance fraud charges last year. The Mail & Guardian has a draft believed to be materially similar to the final affidavit.

Crucially, it claims: ‘Glenn — told me he had a meeting with Selebi where Selebi informed him that he had received a document from the British police, which detailed Glenn’s involvement in drug trafficking. Selebi then handed Glenn a copy of the document, which Glenn showed to me.”

New Scotland Yard detectives are known to have composed several reports on Agliotti’s alleged drug trafficking as early as 2003, which they transmitted to the South African police via Interpol. It is apparently one of these that Nassif claims Selebi handed to Agliotti.

The Scorpions’ interest in the British reports emerged after Mbeki intervened in May to allow Scorpions investigators access to Wachthuis, the police headquarters in Pretoria. The M&G reported in June that Pikoli wrote to Mbeki warning that Wachthuis would have to be raided if Selebi did not hand over information. Mbeki brokered a compromise, allowing the investigators access.

The Sunday Times reported that the Scorpions wanted to establish whether Selebi knew foreign law enforcement agencies were investigating Agliotti. It said Selebi confirmed that the Scotland Yard reports had reached the police, but denied having seen them himself.

The Sunday Times quoted Selebi saying: ‘None of those reports was forwarded to me. Those who deal with those things would be the [police] crime intelligence people, not me.”

Nassif’s affidavit, made months earlier, might have alerted the Scorpions to the Scotland Yard reports. The statement is partially hearsay, as Nassif recounts what he says Agliotti told him. But it contradicts Selebi’s claim not to have seen the reports.

A well-placed criminal justice source said the Scotland Yard reports were central to the charge against Selebi of defeating the ends of justice, implying the Scorpions believe Selebi subverted a drugs investigation into his friend.

Nassif’s statement makes further claims that Selebi protected Agliotti, saying:

l Agliotti told Nassif that police at OR Tambo Airport had confronted him ‘about certain drug allegations. Glenn got Selebi on the phone, who then spoke to the policeman, whereafter the confrontation ceased.”

l Agliotti handed Nassif a document he received from Selebi. ‘The document is a casual source report which was drafted by Paul O’Sullivan and faxed to — the Scorpions. Glenn said Selebi had said they must work out who the source of that document was to determine where our troubles were coming from.”

O’Sullivan, axed as Airports Company of South Africa security head after run-ins with Selebi, is known to have assisted the Scorpions with their probe into the police chief. He passed at least two crucial witnesses to the Scorpions, including a Nassif employee codenamed ‘Casual Source”. Nassif alleges one of O’Sullivan’s interviews with this source found its way to him via Selebi and Agliotti.

O’Sullivan this week charged: ‘I am disgusted — Selebi not only compromised the investigation, but, by giving the data to his criminal ‘friend’, severely compromised the safety of one of my sources.”

Nassif’s statement also provides new insight into allegations that Kebble channelled pay-offs to Selebi via Spring Lights 6 and Misty Mountain Trading 18. Agliotti was associated with both companies.

The M&G reported last week that Kebble-headed mining house JCI transferred about R18-million to Spring Lights in 2004 and 2005, some of which was allegedly converted to cash to be paid by Agliotti to Selebi. This formed the basis of the Scorpions’ corruption charge against the police chief.

Nassif’s statement says: ‘Glenn would instruct [accountant Martin] Flint to make payments out of Spring Lights as and when required to whomever was nominated by Glenn to be recipients of payments.

‘Those companies (recipients) would be companies and/or accounts controlled by Glenn and/or me. I would then cash some of the cheques issued by those companies to give cash back to Glenn for his own benefit and to pay Selebi.”

Nassif admits he never saw Agliotti hand the cash to Selebi, but says he believed it happened.

The statement also addresses the claim that Misty Mountain, controlled by Agliotti, was used to channel a further bribe of up to R13-million to Selebi.

Nassif says Agliotti told him the money, disguised as a loan from JCI to Agliotti, was paid to the police chief ‘to obtain his protection for Brett and [his associate John] Stratton”.

Nassif says he was present when Stratton complained ‘Selebi was not performing in terms of the agreement” and wanted the money returned. Agliotti, however, ‘said it was paid to Selebi and it could not be returned”.

Nassif’s statement leaves open the possibility that the Misty Mountain money did not reach Selebi and that Agliotti kept it.

Selebi’s office this week declined detailed comment, deferring to the panel acting prosecutions boss Mokotedi Mpshe has appointed to review the Scorpions’ Selebi investigation.

But a source close to Selebi said: ‘In 2003 Glenn was interviewed by the police following a complaint by John Stratton that Glenn had claimed the national commissioner wanted R10-million to protect the gang.

‘Stratton said Glenn claimed the money was for the national commissioner. But during the interview, which the police recorded on video, Glenn admitted he had lied to his associates by saying the money was for Selebi. He said the truth was that he wanted to pay certain people.”

The M&G reported last week that the Misty Mountain allegations appear not to have made it into the draft charges against Selebi.

n Meanwhile, Frene Ginwala, appointed by Mbeki to inquire into Pikoli’s fitness for office, has opted not to release government’s submission on the reasons for Pikoli’s suspension.

Her spokesperson, Lawson Naidoo, conceded there was no legal requirement to do so, but said Ginwala would await Pikoli’s response before deciding how to proceed, while keeping the ‘case for the prosecution” secret for now.

Naidoo said Ginwala was seeking legal opinion on matters relating to the inquiry. ‘Only after both submissions and the legal advice have been considered by Dr Ginwala will the rules and processes of the inquiry be finalised,” he said.

Pikoli has asked for three weeks to prepare his response.

The M&G understands Pikoli’s supporters consider the government’s case against Pikoli ‘underwhelming”. One Pikoli sympathiser said the allegations were bland and that Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla had apparently found it difficult to formulate substantial charges.

NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said the panel appointed to advise on Mpshe’s review had been busy with its task for more than a week. He declined to say when the review would be completed.