/ 29 July 2010

Roger Kebble ‘knew of assisted suicide’

Roger Kebble 'knew Of Assisted Suicide'

“I have been humbled by this experience of the last five years,” former security chief for the Kebbles, Clinton Nassif, told the court on Thursday. “I apologise to the Kebble family for what happened … If I could change what happened I would.”

Nassif is the sixth witness to tesify in the trial against drug dealer Glenn Agliotti for the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble. The trial began on Monday in the South Gauteng High Court.

Nassif, who has been granted indemnity by the state, told the court that he helped orchestrate the “assisted suicide of Kebble”, and the shooting of Stephen Mildenhall, former chief investment officer at Allan Gray, on the Kebble’s instruction.

Nassif told the court that after a meeting with Kebble, Agliotti and Kebble’s business partner John Stratton where he was allegedly told by Kebble that he wanted to be killed, he squealed to Kebble’s father, Roger.

“The next day, Brett blasted me from a dizzy height.” He had been angry, he said, that Nassif had told Roger, who had allegedly subsequently called Brett Kebble to chastise him.

“Roger said ever since he was a teenager he would threaten us with this [suicide],” said Nassif

This is the first time that it has emerged that any member of the Kebble family was aware of the forthcoming shooting.

No money for Kebble murder
Nassif said he had contracted boxer Mikey Schultz, rugby player turned bouncer Nigel McGurk and Faizel “Kappie” Smith to carry out the feigned hijacking of Kebble.

Nassif said that he had not been paid any money by Agliotti for the Kebble murder. He had only received R200 000 from him with which to pay for the shooting of Mildenhall, which he gave to the same trio involved in the Kebble murder, for their expenses for the job.

Nassif also apologised to Mildenhall. Mildenhall was shot in the shoulders in 2005 in Cape Town, by two unknown gunmen that Smith says he found “at a taxi rank” in Cape Town. Mildenhall was at the time involved in creating conditions on behalf of Allan Gray for Kebble’s company, JCI’s loan agreement with Investec.

The Kebble murder trial got under way on Monday after numerous postponements since Agliotti’s arrest in November 2006.

Agliotti pleaded not guilty to four charges — the murder of Kebble and conspiracy to murder Kebble, the attempted murder of Mildenhall, and conspiracy to murder Mildenhall and mining bosses Danie Nortier, Mark Bristow and Mark Wellesley-Wood.

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. The state has argued that 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 have been under way for a number of years.

Agliotti is not being 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. A new team, headed by Dan Dakana, is prosecuting Agliotti.

So far the court has seen Schultz, Smith, McGurk, Mildenhall and restaranteur Alexis Christopher in the witness box.

Nassif’s testimony continues after lunch.

The M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism, supported by M&G Media and the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, produced this story.”www.amabhungane.co.za.