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Johannesburg - Former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi and convicted drug lord Glenn Agliotti were reportedly an “intelligence project” sanctioned by the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee.
According to the Sunday Independent, former crime intelligence boss Mulangi Mphego told them in an interview that a grave injustice had been done to Selebi and that evidence had been suppressed and ignored in order to secure his conviction.
Mphego alleges that Selebi had been tasked by the committee to foster a relationship with Agliotti, who had been identified as a suspect in extortion, money-laundering and drug-related crimes.
He said that the committee, which is comprised of heads of intelligence agencies, decided to task the national commissioner to foster a relationship with Agliotti.
“There is not a single day that he had an interaction with Agliotti that was not authorised at that level,” said Mphego.
Mphego’s claims, report the newspaper, were independently corroborated by two other former intelligence bosses.
Mphego says he was “neutralised” by the NPA and that his evidence, during Selebi’s trial, was suppressed.
This comes in the wake of Selebi’s death, which has seen a number of people come out in support of him and question the way his trial was conducted.
As reported by News24, the ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte and former president Thabo Mbeki have both urged the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to find the “real truth” behind the late Selebi’s conviction for corruption in August 2010.
Duarte, who was one of thousands who attended Selebi’s funeral on Saturday said: “The notion that Jackie was corrupt cannot stand.”
In a statement read out at the funeral, former president Thabo Mbeki also called on the NPA to conduct an “honest and thorough investigation” into Selebi’s conviction.
He said that Selebi will not be remembered as the villain that he has been portrayed as. Mbeki said the question that lingers is who was right and who was wrong? “Perhaps the NPA will help us all to answer this question,” he said.
Selebi died late last month aged 64. He had reportedly suffered from diabetes and kidney problems, reported News24.
He was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on 3 August 2010, for taking bribes from convicted drug dealer Glenn Agliotti.
The former head of Interpol started serving his sentence in 2011, after being found guilty of corruption in 2010. He was released from Pretoria central prison on medical parole less than a year later.
Agliotti meanwhile was convicted of drug dealing and later turned State's evidence against some of the accused in Selebi’s corruption trial.
