Selebi: Taxpayers pay millions
2009-12-18 14:27
Cape Town - The state has paid more than R7m in legal fees so far for former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi as he fights corruption charges, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa has revealed.
Mthethwa said in response to a parliamentary question from the Freedom Front Plus, Selebi's legal fees since his contract ended in August came to some R6.9m and since then to "approximately R0.5 million".
Selebi went on trial on October 4 on two charges of corruption relating to his friendship with convicted drug boss Glenn Agliotti and one of defeating the ends of justice.
He allegedly received at least R1.2m from Agliotti and others in the crime world in return for favours.
The former Interpol boss's trial was put on hold at the beginning of this month after the state security ministry launched a court bid to prevent an ex-intelligence official from testifying.
It has been scheduled to resume on February 1, 2010 but it is not clear if proceedings will actually get under way given the state's resolve to prevent testimony it claims could set a precedent of compromising intelligence information.
The Selebi matter will by then have spanned four years, investigations against him having started in 2006.
His defence is being handled by Jaap Cilliers, one of the country's most seasoned advocates.
FF Plus MP Pieter Groenewald said Selebi should be made to pay his own legal fees.
"This is a shocking amount because Selebi is no longer in service of the state and the charges do not stem from his work or his duties as commissioner of police. They are criminal charges and he should carry his own costs."
Groenewald said he would raise the matter with Mthethwa in the National Assembly and demand the minister explain the criteria that were used to determine that the taxpayer shoulder the considerable financial burden of his defence, even after his contract had been terminated.
- SAPA