Gauteng police have confirmed that Glenn Agliotti, the man at the centre of former police commissioner Jackie Selebi’s corruption trial, has died.
According to Gauteng police spokesperson Mavela Masondo, an inquest docket has been opened at the Douglasdale police station in Sandton and a postmortem will be conducted to determine the cause of death.
In 2006, Agliotti was arrested in connection with the shooting of Brett Kebble, a mining magnate whose name later featured prominently in the 2009 corruption trial against boxer Mikey Schultz, who eventually confessed to Kebble’s slaying. Agliotti could not be directly implicated in the murder, which was found to be an assisted suicide.
After being cleared of Kebble’s murder, Agliotti later became the state’s star witness in the Selebi trial. Agliotti’s friendship with Selebi was well-documented and cellphone records showed the pair had been in contact on the night of Kebble’s slaying.
In 2007, the National Prosecuting Authority issued a warrant of arrest for Selebi for corruption, fraud, racketeering and defeating the ends of justice. Hewas accused of accepting bribes and gifts from Kebble, Agliotti and businessman Billy Rautenbach in exchange for information and preferential police treatment.
In 2010, Selebi was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by Judge Meyer Joffe, who called him an “embarrassment to South Africa and the police”. Joffe convicted Selebi of accepting bribes worth R166 000 from Agliotti in exchange for showing him top secret police reports.
Selebi was granted medical parole less than a year into his prison term. He died in 2015.
