A boxer, R2-million and two botched "assisted suicide" attempts emerged in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday as details of mining magnate Brett Kebble's murder.
The state's first witness, called by Gauteng deputy director of public prosecutions Dan Dakana, was professional boxer Michael Schultz, who described how he shot and killed Kebble. "I leaned out the [car] window, pointing the firearm at him... He just lifted his shoulder, his right shoulder, and looked in front... I aimed at his head and pulled the trigger, but the weapon did not discharge," Schultz told the court, describing the night of September 27, 2005.
He was testifying as state witness in the trial of convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti, who faced four charges, two related to Kebble's murder. After the gun - which Schultz kept in a kitbag - failed to discharge the first time, he and two other accomplices turned state witnesses, Faizel Smith and Nigel McGurk, drove off. After inspecting the weapon, they returned and found Kebble in his vehicle and tried again. "I leaned out of the window and pointed the firearm... Once again the gun did not discharge."
Schultz said he then told Kebble to wait for him. The trio drove away for the second time. He inspected the gun. They made a U-turn and returned to where they had left Kebble. However, Kebble had driven off. They stopped their car and saw him coming towards them. They flashed their headlights at him. He made a U-turn and "stopped hard" next to them. "I could see the disappointment in his face, he gave me a look like to say 'get this over with, you're putting me through hell'," Schultz said.
Schultz leaned out of the window and this time aimed for Kebble's body. "I pulled the trigger, this time the gun fired. I kept firing." He could not remember how many times he shot, but recalled that one of his instructions was that Kebble should not suffer.
The three then drove away. Schultz looked back and saw Kebble's car rolling forward and hitting the pavement. They sped from the scene in Melrose Street in Johannesburg to Smith's panel-beating business, where Smith cut the gun into pieces and said he would dispose of it. The next morning Schultz got up and went to gym.
During cross-examination, Agliotti's lawyer Laurence Hodes SC put it to Schultz that his client "never ever conspired with you to aid the murder of Roger Brett Kebble". To which Schultz replied: "No, he didn't." Hodes then asked Schultz whether he agreed that Agliotti had not "in any manner" killed the mining magnate. Schultz replied: "I agree." He asked Schultz whether, to his knowledge, Agliotti had received part of the R2-million offered by Kebble to help him die. "Not from the R2-million, no, not to my knowledge," he replied.
Schultz could gain indemnity from prosecution for his role in the murder if the court finds his testimony truthful.
Agliotti faces two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, a charge of attempted murder and one of murder. The first count is conspiracy to commit the murders of Mark Bristow, Jean Daniel Nortier, Mark Wellesley-Woods and Stephen Mildenhall. The second count is the attempted murder of Stephen Mildenhall. The last two are conspiracy to murder Kebble and Kebble's murder.
Judge Frans Kgomo adjourned the matter until Tuesday morning.
Source: IoL
Showing posts with label Jean Daniel Nortier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jean Daniel Nortier. Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 1993
WHAT'S BEHIND WASHINGTON'S SILENCE ON HAITI DRUG CONNECTION?
At stake in the U.S. confrontation with the Haitian military regime is a cocaine smuggling operation that earns millions of dollars for Haitian military officials while dumping tons of the deadly white powder on American streets. Yet while the country debates the merits of armed intervention in Haiti, the Clinton administration has remained mum on the Haitian "drug connection."
A confidential report by the Drug Enforcement Agency obtained by Pacific News Service describes Haiti as "a major transshipment point for cocaine traffickers" funnelling drugs from Colombia and the Dominican Republic into the U.S.-with the knowledge and active involvement of high military officials and business elites.
The corruption of the Haitian military "is substantial enough to hamper any significant drug investigation attempting to dismantle" illicit drug operations inside Haiti, the report states. Echoing the report's findings, exiled Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide recently blamed the military's role in the drug trade for his ouster.
Despite extensive DEA intelligence documenting Haiti's drug role, neither the Clinton administration, nor the Bush administration before it, have ever raised that role publicly. Now critics of U.S. policy on Haiti, including one Congressman, are questioning that silence, suggesting it reflects de facto U.S. support for the Haitian military and a reluctance to offer unqualified support for Aristide.
"I've been amazed that our government has never talked about the drug trafficking...even though it is obviously one of the major reasons why these people drove their president out of the country and why they are determined not to let him back in. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal profits that are having disastrous consequences for the American people," says Rep. John Conyers (D-MI).
Larry Burns, head of the Washington, D.C.-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, claims, "From the moment Aristide was overthrown two years ago, Washington has equivocated on whether it wanted him back or not..." To secure the military "as an anchor to Aristide's sail," Burns charges, Washington "turned a blind eye to the corruption charges, and pretended that it could be reformed through professionalization and U.S. training."
A senior administration official at the National Security Council dismisses the charge but when asked why the administration has failed to publicize DEA allegations of drug trafficking, the spokesman had no comment.
The DEA first established a Country Office (CO) in Port-au-Prince to assist the Haitian government with its anti-narcotics activities in November 1987. Throughout Aristide's brief tenure in office, DEA agents worked closely with Haitian military narcotics services, investigating an illegal cocaine network estimated to be moving some $300-$500 million worth of cocaine into the U.S. per year. Although the DEA office was shut down after the 1991 coup, it reopened in the fall of 1992. But soon after DEA intelligence prompted the arrest of a member of Haiti's ClA-linked National Intelligence, DEA local agent Tony Greco received death threats from a man identifying himself as the National Intelligence member's boss.
A Congressional source familiar with the DEA's history in Haiti told PNS that Greco had also "connected (Lt. Colonel Michel) Francois to the drug trafficking operations in Haiti." Francois, the current chief of police, is alleged to be behind the current campaign of terror.
What disturbs Rep. Conyers is that none of this information ever reached the public. "By turning a deaf ear to what is obviously a prime force behind Aristide's ouster, we raise questions about our own involvement in drug activities," Conyers says. He is currently investigating how it is that the ships and aircraft necessary to sustain such a large operation evade detection and interdiction, while the U.S. government has managed to spot, stop and turn back almost every ramshackle boat carrying refugees.
Indeed the DEA report shows that after the 1991 coup sent Aristide into exile, there were virtually no major seizures of cocaine from Haiti as compared to nearly 4,000 pounds seized in 1990.
Michael Levine, author of "Deep Cover" and a decorated DEA agent with 25 years of experience fighting drugs overseas, says what's going on in Haiti is "just another example of elements of the U.S. government protecting killers, drug dealers and dictators for the sake of some political end that's going to cost a whole bunch of kids in this country their lives.
"I saw the drug traffickers take over the government of Bolivia in 1980, ironically with the assistance of the CIA, and we (the DEA) just packed up our office and went home."
Source: Global research.ca
A confidential report by the Drug Enforcement Agency obtained by Pacific News Service describes Haiti as "a major transshipment point for cocaine traffickers" funnelling drugs from Colombia and the Dominican Republic into the U.S.-with the knowledge and active involvement of high military officials and business elites.
The corruption of the Haitian military "is substantial enough to hamper any significant drug investigation attempting to dismantle" illicit drug operations inside Haiti, the report states. Echoing the report's findings, exiled Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide recently blamed the military's role in the drug trade for his ouster.
Despite extensive DEA intelligence documenting Haiti's drug role, neither the Clinton administration, nor the Bush administration before it, have ever raised that role publicly. Now critics of U.S. policy on Haiti, including one Congressman, are questioning that silence, suggesting it reflects de facto U.S. support for the Haitian military and a reluctance to offer unqualified support for Aristide.
"I've been amazed that our government has never talked about the drug trafficking...even though it is obviously one of the major reasons why these people drove their president out of the country and why they are determined not to let him back in. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal profits that are having disastrous consequences for the American people," says Rep. John Conyers (D-MI).
Larry Burns, head of the Washington, D.C.-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, claims, "From the moment Aristide was overthrown two years ago, Washington has equivocated on whether it wanted him back or not..." To secure the military "as an anchor to Aristide's sail," Burns charges, Washington "turned a blind eye to the corruption charges, and pretended that it could be reformed through professionalization and U.S. training."
A senior administration official at the National Security Council dismisses the charge but when asked why the administration has failed to publicize DEA allegations of drug trafficking, the spokesman had no comment.
The DEA first established a Country Office (CO) in Port-au-Prince to assist the Haitian government with its anti-narcotics activities in November 1987. Throughout Aristide's brief tenure in office, DEA agents worked closely with Haitian military narcotics services, investigating an illegal cocaine network estimated to be moving some $300-$500 million worth of cocaine into the U.S. per year. Although the DEA office was shut down after the 1991 coup, it reopened in the fall of 1992. But soon after DEA intelligence prompted the arrest of a member of Haiti's ClA-linked National Intelligence, DEA local agent Tony Greco received death threats from a man identifying himself as the National Intelligence member's boss.
A Congressional source familiar with the DEA's history in Haiti told PNS that Greco had also "connected (Lt. Colonel Michel) Francois to the drug trafficking operations in Haiti." Francois, the current chief of police, is alleged to be behind the current campaign of terror.
What disturbs Rep. Conyers is that none of this information ever reached the public. "By turning a deaf ear to what is obviously a prime force behind Aristide's ouster, we raise questions about our own involvement in drug activities," Conyers says. He is currently investigating how it is that the ships and aircraft necessary to sustain such a large operation evade detection and interdiction, while the U.S. government has managed to spot, stop and turn back almost every ramshackle boat carrying refugees.
Indeed the DEA report shows that after the 1991 coup sent Aristide into exile, there were virtually no major seizures of cocaine from Haiti as compared to nearly 4,000 pounds seized in 1990.
Michael Levine, author of "Deep Cover" and a decorated DEA agent with 25 years of experience fighting drugs overseas, says what's going on in Haiti is "just another example of elements of the U.S. government protecting killers, drug dealers and dictators for the sake of some political end that's going to cost a whole bunch of kids in this country their lives.
"I saw the drug traffickers take over the government of Bolivia in 1980, ironically with the assistance of the CIA, and we (the DEA) just packed up our office and went home."
Source: Global research.ca
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)