“The road to the investigation of the accused started on lies deliberately spread by someone,” former police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s defence counsel Jaap Cilliers told the South Gauteng High Court on Tuesday afternoon.
Cilliers began presenting his closing heads of argument in Selebi’s corruption trial, now in its sixth month. Cilliers said the basis for which an investigation into Selebi was started — a letter from former national director of public prosecutions Charin de Beer — contained an annexure with false allegations.
The allegations were that Selebi had received money from the Kebble family’s former security boss, Clinton Nassif, and that Selebi had been involved in fraud with the Kebble family. “It is now common cause that the first allegation … is blatantly untrue,” the defence stated. Cilliers said the second allegation was denied by the state’s main witness, Glen Agliotti, as “totally untrue”.
Cilliers began his argument by claiming the state, “made themselves guilty of generalisations in their approach. They don’t get into much detail … Once you test it in more detail, huge gaps appear in the state’s case”.
He put it to the court that “the old common-law principle reads ‘rather let a hundred guilty persons walk away than let one innocent person land in jail.'”
Earlier in the day, state prosecutor Gerrie Ne completed his closing arguments by looking at the state’s allegation that Selebi did not receive a fair trial.
“There has been no violation of the accused’s rights whatsoever. [The defence] have to show that the rights have been infringed, they cannot just make wild allegations.”
Nel said that the prosecution’s methodology had been criticised, along with bringing in a witness like drug dealer Agliotti, but added that “throughout the world, if you want deal with organised crime, you have to get into it, otherwise you can’t deal with it”.
He said that Selebi was manipulative, holding on to pieces of evidence, such as a DVD made in 2005 in which Agliotti denied paying money to Selebi, and keeping it as a “help-you-card” to bring up in court at a later stage.
“Before the trial started the accused had all the evidence available,” said Nel, “but he only used his argument about the prosecutor not acting without fear or favour when his other defences failed.”
On Monday, Nel listed what he called Selebi’s “big five lies”, which involved the former top policeman changing his version of events repeatedly; lying about holding a meeting with then-national director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli; pretending to co-author a list of expenses with his wife; saying that his wife shredded expenditure receipts, and fabricating a document which he claimed was the original before court.
The trial continues.