Selebi has 48 hours to report to jail

2011-12-02 10:43

Bloemfontein - Guilty! That's the message the Supreme Court of Appeal judges sent to the country's disgraced former top cop on Friday.

Jackie Selebi, once South Africa's national police commissioner, failed to have his corruption conviction set aside in a judgment handed down in Bloemfontein, and has to report to prison within 48 hours.

"There can therefore be no question that the State succeeded in proving the guilt of the appellant beyond reasonable doubt and the court a quo (below) was justified in convicting the appellant of corruption.

"The appeal is dismissed," Judge Kenneth Mthiyane said.

Selebi was convicted for receiving benefits from convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Unanimous decision

In a unanimous decision by a full bench of five judges, the court found the annotations "cash JS", "A", "cash cop", and "cash chief" on cheque counterfoils referred to Selebi.

They rejected the submission that the cheques were for an ill policeman Agliotti was helping to support.

"This court also accepted that the words 'cop', c-o-p and 'JS' referred to the appellant," said Mthiyane.

Selebi was appealing last year's judgment by Judge Meyer Joffe in the South Gauteng High Court, where he was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

"On all the evidence contained in 66 volumes amounting to more than 600 pages that we had to wade through in this application for appeal, we are satisfied that the high court was correct in finding that the applicant did receive payment from Agliotti," said Mthiyane.

- SAPA