Crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli and his three co-accused were granted bail by the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
Magistrate Emmanuel Magomba said that while there was no evidence linking the four to a 1999 shooting, there was circumstantial evidence.
A witness had also seen three or four people running from the scene.
Magoba said a strong suspicion that Mdluli and court orderly Samuel Dlomo planned the killing of Oupa Abel Ramogibe in 1999 would be tackled during the trial.
Mdluli and Dlomo are charged, with Colonel Nkosana Sebastian Ximba (38) and Lieutenant-Colonel Mtunzi-Omhle Mthembeni Mtunzi (52) of the murder of Ramogibe.
They are also charged with intimidation, three counts of kidnapping, two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.
Mdluli faces an additional charge of defeating and obstructing the course of justice.
Ramogibe, who married Mdluli’s ex-lover, was allegedly told to leave her or he would be killed. He had opened an attempted murder case before his death.
At the time, Mdluli was the station commissioner at the Vosloorus police station in Boksburg, on the East Rand.
During his bail application, Mdluli claimed that he had already been cleared of the murder, and that the recent charges were part of a conspiracy against him. — Sapa