Agliotti: My life is ruined

2009-10-15 21:11

Johannesburg - Graft-accused Jackie Selebi's former friend Glenn Agliotti was viewed speaking about how his life was ruined in a video recording screened in the South Gauteng High Court on Thursday.

"It’s a political game and unfortunately I got caught up in the middle," says the convicted drug trafficker.

"They fucked up my life, my business, my relationship."

The approximately hour-long recording, made in a Sandton hotel room on January 7, 2008, films a meeting between Agliotti, police commissioner Mulangi Mphego and the National Intelligence Agency's Arthur Fraser discussing the investigation into Selebi.

The footage shows only Agliotti in the frame, dressed in a cream shirt, talking confidently and assertively as he sits in a chair in front of a light curtain.

Another voice is heard off screen, sometimes prompting him with questions and at other times murmuring in agreement, apparent astonishment or simply repeating what Agliotti says.

Scorpions 'obsessed with Selebi'

The camera frames Agliotti as a small figure at the bottom of the screen amidst shadows and light created by the sun shining through the room's window.

In the video Agliotti alleges the Scorpions drove an "obsessed" plot to bring down the former police head to ensure the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO) - or Scorpions - would not be incorporated into the SA Police Service.

"They are so obsessed in discrediting Selebi and discrediting SAPS [SA Police Service]" he says in the video.

Amidst this political conspiracy, Agliotti said he was simply friends with the wrong person at the wrong time.

"They made me out to be the so-called big drug lord, landlord, the mafia boss. It was all bullshit."

He claims the Scorpions told him as much, admitting: "We had to tarnish you and make you look as bad as we could to target Selebi".

At a later stage, he says: "I'm a nobody."

Agliotti repeats his assertion that he never bribed Selebi.

"They go on the whole assumption that because of my criminal activity I had to have him on my side so he could protect me... I never asked him for anything...Selebi's never tried to influence anything."

'Media destroyed me'

Agliotti also puts blame on the Scorpions for a November 2007 armed robbery that took place at his home and in which his family were assaulted.

"They fucking advertise in every newspaper where I live. I'm under house arrest and I'm beaten up, tied up for three hours."

He said media attention destroyed his professional reputation.

"The disgrace in the newspapers...How can I go out there and do business."

Agliotti says the Scorpions intimidated him into doing a deal.

"They threatened me in saying 'do a deal because if not you are going to jail."

He says he was told that unless he made a deal he would be kept away from his wife who was pregnant at the time, and that he would be imprisoned for a decade.

"That's mental torture," he says.

'A law unto themselves'

Agliotti describes the Scorpions as "a law unto themselves", saying Prosecutor Gerrie Nel told him they had underestimated the task of bringing Selebi down.

"Nel in his own words he admitted...'I underestimated Selebi's power and I made a mistake'.

"What I haven't been through, and I'm not a hero, I don't wish it on anybody," says Agliotti.

"I do feel vulnerable, I do feel that my life is at risk," he says towards the end of the recording.

Agliotti told the court previously he had agreed to the filming on the understanding it was off the record and purely for intelligence gathering purposes.

Judge Meyer Joffe ruled on Thursday the videotape evidence was provisionally admitted and consequently it was viewed in court.

Selebi is facing two counts of corruption and defeating the ends of justice related to payments of at least R1.2m he allegedly received from Agliotti, slain mining magnate Brett Kebble and ex-Hyundai boss Billy Rautenbach.

After court adjourned until Friday for the continued cross-examination of Agliotti, Selebi, dressed in a cream suit and red tie, told reporters: "It’s sickening to listen to this."

Asked if he could ever see himself resuming his friendship with Agliotti, he remarked, "Friends, oh!" before turning away in apparent disgust.

- SAPA