|
New twists in Kebble murder
19/11/2006 16:33 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Another business associate of slain mining magnate Brett Kebble's pending arrest Down Under, and the ruling party's unanimous support for embattled national police commissioner Jackie Selebi, added twists to South Africa's high-profile murder mystery at the weekend.
The splash of Sunday newspaper coverage - much of it attributed to unnamed sources - followed the arrest last week of businessman Glenn Agliotti.
Both Kebble and Selebi had reportedly been friends with Agliotti, who now has the media reputation of being known as "The Landlord" in the drug and smuggling world, a divorcee after two wives dumped him for bigamy, and a police informer.
Sunday papers reported that, according to the police and the Scorpions, Agliotti had allegedly approached Kebble's former security man, Clinton Nassif, to assist in an orchestrated assassination that would leave Kebble's family with life insurance payouts as he faced major debts.
Desperate for money
However, the Afrikaans newspaper Rapport reported that, because Kebble apparently tried to escape the scene, it gave credit to a theory that he may have been killed in an illegal diamond-dealing trap.
"It was known that in his last days Kebble was desperate to get his hands on money and would have done almost anything to make a few million rands to afford his and his family's high lifestyle," the report read.
Kebble, who was shot dead in his car in Johannesburg's northern suburbs in September last year, had reportedly offered Agliotti R1.5m to have the job done.
The Sunday Times reported that James Stratton, Kebble's business associate and a beneficiary of Kebble's fraudulent transactions, who is in Australia, had spoken to him two hours before he was gunned down.
Stratton had blocked Kebble family investigator Judge Willem Heath from probing the security company of Clinton Nassif in connection with the murder.
The report read that "an official close to the investigation" had told the Sunday Times investigators were keen to question Stratton after receiving certain information from Nassif.
Nassif reportedly got police to release the vehicle in which Kebble was shot dead before proper forensic tests had been done.
'Professionals' to do the job
Nassif and three others have turned State witness against Agliotti in the Kebble murder case.
Attributing intelligence sources, City Press reported that Agliotti told Nassif that Kebble "wants this thing to look like a robbery" and needed "professionals" to do the job.
Nassif contacted infamous club bouncer, Mickey Schultz, and his two accomplices, Faizel Smith and Nigel McGurk, to carry out the "hit".
City Press's report pointed out: "The fact that the Scorpions are prepared to offer immunity from prosecution to the actual killers and go only for Agliotti, is seen as a continuation of the turf war, with the spotlight falling on Selebi and his now-public association with Agliotti."
- SAPA
|
News
