South Africa’s ex Police chief jailed 15 years for corruption
Ex- Commissioner Selebi
South Africa’s former national Police commissioner and former United Nations SA envoy , Jackie Selebi has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for corruption.
Selebi was the first south African Police chief and a referred public figure.
A former president of Interpol, he was convicted in July of receiving bribes from a drug dealer
Convicted dealer Glenn Agliotti paid Selebi 1.2m rand ($156,000; £103,000) to turn a blind eye to his business.
Jackie Selebi is the most senior South African official appointed by the country’s government to have been convicted of corruption.
The sentence is the minimum recommended for senior police officers found guilty of corruption.
Judge Joffe Meyer in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg described Selebi as “an embarrassment” and a “stranger to the truth” in the witness box.
“At no stage during the trial did the accused display any indication of remorse. The accused lied and fabricated evidence in an effort to escape the consequences of his conduct,” the judge said.
He has been given 14 days to file an appeal against the conviction.
Already he has been freed on bail while appeal processes will commence soon..
The former police chief was in count, gazing occasionally around the court room looking sober and remorseful as he listened to the 45-minute judgement without much emotion.
The 60-year-old was well connected in the ruling African National Congress government.
He was also a former president of the ANC Youth League, served as South Africa’s representative at the UN and was a close ally of former President Thabo Mbeki.
“The fall that the accused already had must have been one of the greatest falls known in our legal history,” Selebi’s defence lawyer Jaap Cilliers told a court hearing on Monday, as a judge considered Selebi’s sentence.
Mitigating on his behalf, Selebi’s defence team had asked the judge to consider a suspended jail term and a fine.
He has already forfeited 320,722 rand $43,800, ( bout £27,500) as the proceeds of crime crimes committed.
But prosecutors said Selebi had shown no remorse for his actions.
“We don’t have a fallen angel here. A fallen angel admits when they make a mistake,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel had said.
During the trial the court heard how Selebi had spent thousands of dollars on shopping sprees with the money he was given by Agliotti.
Agliotti, who gave evidence against Selebi in return for immunity on bribery charges, is himself on trial for murdering a mining tycoon.
His trial had gripped the entire nation.
It was revealed during the trial that money was being handed over in brown paper bags and spy games.
Intrigue, obfuscation and patronage characterised the case according to reports by the BBC news service. .
In the end though – despite his political links, Selebi was left crestfallen: Guilty of corruption on an obscene scale.
At the end of the case, Judge Meyer Joffe said: “Every day society in general relies on the honesty and truthfulness of policemen and women… It is not an example that must be emulated by members of the Saps [South African Police Service].”
As he points out, this case speaks of so much more than Selebi, a man who helped shape the geopolitics of the new South Africa, being seduced by cash, fine dining and gifts of the latest designer suits.
It is about cronyism and the politicisation of South Africa’s intelligence services as it confronts the fight against crime.
The initial stage of the trial as charges were laid against Selebi came as one of the most turbulent times in South African politics.
It was 2007 and the power struggle between then-President Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, who was to succeed him, was reaching fever pitch
Selebi enjoyed a close relationship with Mr Mbeki and had thought himself immune from prosecution when questions started emerging about his dubious friendship with Glenn Agliotti – a convicted drug baron.
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