Drug trafficker and disgraced police chief Jackie Selebi’s former friend, Glenn Agliotti, was back in the South Gauteng High Court on Monday morning — this time as the accused to face charges of murder for the death of mining boss Brett Kebble.
Agliotti arrived at court dressed in an expensive navy-blue suit and salmon-coloured shirt, flanked by his advocate Laurence Hodes and attorney Robert Kanarek.
Agliotti admits hellping Kebble with his “assisted suicide” in September 2005, but claims he should not be convicted of murder or conspiracy to murder.
A number of people summoned to testify against Agliotti were sitting outside courtroom 4C, including Mikey Schultz, who allegedly pulled the trigger, and Clinton Nassif, the Kebble family’s head of security that allegedly recruited three hitmen to kill Kebble.
The Scorpions, who took over the murder investigation from the police in 2006, came under fire for dishing out indemnity agreements to Nassif, Schultz and other people implicated in the murder. But the state has argued Agliotti and Kebble’s former business associate, John Stratton, were the masterminds behind the hit.
Stratton currently lives in Australia and efforts to extradite him to South Africa has been under way for a number of years.
Agliotti will not be prosecuted by state prosecutor Gerrie Nel, who headed the Scorpions’ investigation into the criminal network around Kebble. Prosecutions boss Menzi Simelane removed Nel and his team from the case earlier this year to focus on prosecuting Selebi.
The prosecution will be led by Johannesburg prosecutor Dan Dakana.