Telephone records by the State's seventh witness in the trial of Brett Kebble murder accused Glenn Agliotti provided further evidence security boss Clinton Nassif had lied. Details of phone calls between people said to be involved in the "assisted suicide" of mining magnate Kebble were presented to the High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday by State witness Petro Heyneke, Vodacom's forensic liaison manager.
Nassif, a section 204 witness for the State, and Kebble's former head of security, told the court last week he was asleep the night of Kebble's murder on September 27, 2005. But telephone records show he made a number of calls between 8.45pm and 9.51pm that night. There was then a gap between phone calls until 11.06pm, when he called his business partner Stephen Sanders. He then called Agliotti.
Prosecutor Lethabo Mashiane asked Heyneke to explain certain calls made by Nassif to Agliotti and vice versa. The records merely indicate the duration of the calls and the approximate location of the cellphone used to make the call. It provides no information on who was speaking or what was said. Agliotti's lawyer Laurance Hodes SC pointed out that the many calls made between Agliotti and Nassif indicated they were not together - if contact was initiated by a phone call. He put it to Heyneke that police requested the records of "40, maybe 50 or even 60" telephone numbers from Vodacom through a subpoena. He asked her whether it "surprised" her that Agliotti's attorney, Robert Kanarek's number was among those police required records for. She replied it was "possible". He then charged that the State, via the subpoena, could gain access to information to "which they are not entitled". Heyneke could not comment on this.
Judge Frans Kgomo asked Heyneke whether Vodacom would provide the president's cellphone records, for example, if requested via a subpoena. She said it was possible as the company did not scrutinise who the number belonged to when providing the records. Heyneke also referred to calls made from Nassif's number to self-confessed Kebble hitmen, boxer Mikey Schultz and Nigel McGurk. Heyneke, prompted by Mashiane, detailed the times of the calls, their duration and approximate location.
After a slight delay caused by the public sector strike, the third week of Agliotti's trial resumed on Tuesday. The stenographer was apparently participating in the strike, but a replacement was found by 11am. "Where are my notes, are they also gone on strike?" quipped Kgomo when he sat down to hear evidence after the morning tea break. Last week Kgomo denied the defence a postponement. Hodes had wanted to halt the trial to approach the National Prosecuting Authority to have the charges against Agliotti withdrawn.
Agliotti is facing four charges, two of conspiracy to commit murder, one of attempted murder and another of murder. The murder charge and one of the conspiracy counts relate to Kebble's murder. He was shot several times in his car in Melrose, Johannesburg. Kgomo adjourned the matter early, and the court building was largely empty by 3pm. The trial continues.
Source: IoL
Showing posts with label Mikey Schultz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mikey Schultz. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Kebble's dirty empire laid bare
Brett Kebble's former strongman described in vivid detail this week the violence and deceit that lay beneath the surface of Kebble's opulent life.
Clinton Nassif, former owner of the Central National Security Group, is the state's key witness in its case against convicted drug-dealer Glenn Agliotti, the only person charged with Kebble's murder on September 27 2005. Nassif took the stand in the South Gauteng High Court on Thursday.
He testified that he met Agliotti on the golf course in 2003, where they "started discussing business". Nassif told Agliotti he was "doing security, investigations". Agliotti told him he was working for Brett Kebble. A week later Agliotti invited Nassif to a breakfast meeting in Sandton. "He spoke about what he did for the Kebbles. I gave him advice about the things they were doing. He told me he was working with Palto, a team under [former police boss] Jackie Selebi. He told me he was friends with Jackie [Selebi]; they worked on investigations."
Nassif said Agliotti suggested that he should start working for Kebble and his business partner, Australian John Stratton, who they flew down to Cape Town to meet. It was agreed that Nassif and his security firm would do work for the Kebbles, but Agliotti told him: "I handle the Kebbles and Stratton. Any meetings with them go through me." At a meeting with Stratton -- at that stage a director of JCI, of which Kebble was chief executive -- he was told about the company's interests and where JCI's "problems were coming from".
Nassif was contracted to "get information and do surveillance", including "bugging people's motor vehicles" and tapping "many people's phones" for Kebble and Stratton. In one case child pornography was planted on a JCI employee's computer. According to Nassif, he was given a list of people to spy on, including former Durban Roodepoort Deep boss Mark Wellesley-Wood, Uranium One chief executive Jean Nortier and Randgold Resources chief executive Mark Bristow. "We had to get bank statements, keep tabs on everyone [who was] against them [Kebble and Stratton]," Nassif testified. He also told the Kebbles he could bribe prosecutors and magistrates. One case against Roger Kebble, Brett's father, "fell away and we got favoured".
Kebble and Stratton's alleged methods were at their crudest in the shooting of former Allan Gray chief investment officer Stephen Mildenhall, who flew from London on Wednesday to testify in the trial. Mildenhall stood in the way of a large Investec loan to JCI. Nassif said that in mid-2005 Agliotti and Stratton gave him names of people "who ... had to be taken care of". "In one meeting Mildenhall came up. I was informed by Agliotti and Stratton that Mildenhall was the real, real problem. Something had to be done." At a meeting at Stratton's Cape Town house, "Stratton said he wanted this thing done" and pointed a sushi knife at Nassif. Nassif said: "I wasn't willing to take on the job of killing Mildenhall." They renegotiated with Stratton and Agliotti, who agreed that Mildenhall should be "taken out of the system for three to six months".
Nassif also revealed for the first time that Brett Kebble's father, Roger, knew about his son's plans to die. After Nassif was asked by Brett Kebble and Stratton to find a pill that could induce a heart attack, Nassif went to Roger's house at night and told him his son had "crazy" plans. "He [Roger Kebble] freaked out, saying since he [Brett] was a teenager, when things got hard, he always threatened this [suicide] ... we left it at that." When Brett Kebble found out Nassif had told his father, "he blasted me from a dizzy height". Meanwhile, the M&G has learned that charges of tax evasion and tax fraud were laid against Agliotti at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria this week. They are understood to flow from a confidential inquiry by the South African Revenue Service into Agliotti's tax affairs, which the M&G revealed in late 2008.
The Kebble trial this week gave a glimpse into the world of South Africa’s short-haired musclemen, who kill for cash. And ruthlessly efficient professionalism was not a quality they brought to mind. The three stooges took the stand in the South Gauteng High Court to explain the murder of Kebble and the shooting of Mildenhall in 2005. Boxer Mikey Schultz, rugby player-turned-bouncer Nigel McGurk and panelbeater Faizel "Kappie" Smith took turns in relaying the muddled events that left Mildenhall shot in the shoulder and Kebble dead In chillingly calm tones they described the plans that led to the hit on Mildenhall, who was calling for Kebble’s removal as chief executive of JCI.
Smith, who admits to being paid for "intimidating people and beating people up", said: "We wanted him taken out of action.” McGurk referred to "taking him [Mildenhall] out of commission"; Schultz said that they "wanted him taken care of". The men did not know Mildenhall and, according to Smith, did not even know what he looked like. They weren't making any money from the job -- but the Kebbles' security chief, Clinton Nassif, assured them that Kebble would look after them financially. On the way to Cape Town, the trio's hired BMW 4X4 ran over a "little buck". They had left their cellphones at home to avoid being traced and had to use a payphone to contact Nassif, who drove down to Colesberg. The three hitchhiked a ride to the sleepy Karoo town and Nassif rented them a Volkswagen Citi Golf to continue to Cape Town. Once there, the Mildenhall shooting was sub-sub-contracted to "two guys at a taxi rank" in Claremont, Cape Town, for R150 000. Smith had found them through "a family member". The shooters staked out the wrong house for three days, mixing up roads with streets, McGurk testified. The shooters waited for Mildenhall to return home from work and shot him in both shoulders. Mildenhall, now resident in the UK, still has pain and has restricted movement in his left shoulder, he testified on Wednesday. The shooters kept Mildenhall's driver's licence "to prove that we had done the job", said McGurk. Smith threw the gun into the sea. Mildenhall's wallet and credit cards were burned under a bridge en route to Johannesburg. In Johannesburg, Smith dropped off his accomplices and then "went to fetch my kid from school".
Smith told the court that a few weeks later Schultz had approached him at his panelbeating shop to say: "Kebble wants to go." Through messages passed from Nassif through Schultz to McGurk and Smith, the three planned to carry out the "assisted suicide" of Kebble for R500 000 each, by feigning a hijacking. On September 22 2005, the night originally planned for the job, it was called off. "I was furious; it was the only thing on my mind all night. I even took a shower," said McGurk. At the next attempt, on September 26, Schultz's wife's black Golf GTI, which they used for the hit, overheated and they had to head home. Kebble was "furious" and told Nassif "we didn’t know what we were putting him through", according to Schultz. The next night, Schultz’s gun jammed at the first two attempts. On the third attempt "Kebble rolled down the window and that was the first time I ever saw him," said Schultz. "I pulled the trigger and the gun fired." McGurk testified he was upset that Schultz had told Nassif about the mishaps. "The car overheated, the gun jammed.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Clinton Nassif, former owner of the Central National Security Group, is the state's key witness in its case against convicted drug-dealer Glenn Agliotti, the only person charged with Kebble's murder on September 27 2005. Nassif took the stand in the South Gauteng High Court on Thursday.
He testified that he met Agliotti on the golf course in 2003, where they "started discussing business". Nassif told Agliotti he was "doing security, investigations". Agliotti told him he was working for Brett Kebble. A week later Agliotti invited Nassif to a breakfast meeting in Sandton. "He spoke about what he did for the Kebbles. I gave him advice about the things they were doing. He told me he was working with Palto, a team under [former police boss] Jackie Selebi. He told me he was friends with Jackie [Selebi]; they worked on investigations."
Nassif said Agliotti suggested that he should start working for Kebble and his business partner, Australian John Stratton, who they flew down to Cape Town to meet. It was agreed that Nassif and his security firm would do work for the Kebbles, but Agliotti told him: "I handle the Kebbles and Stratton. Any meetings with them go through me." At a meeting with Stratton -- at that stage a director of JCI, of which Kebble was chief executive -- he was told about the company's interests and where JCI's "problems were coming from".
Nassif was contracted to "get information and do surveillance", including "bugging people's motor vehicles" and tapping "many people's phones" for Kebble and Stratton. In one case child pornography was planted on a JCI employee's computer. According to Nassif, he was given a list of people to spy on, including former Durban Roodepoort Deep boss Mark Wellesley-Wood, Uranium One chief executive Jean Nortier and Randgold Resources chief executive Mark Bristow. "We had to get bank statements, keep tabs on everyone [who was] against them [Kebble and Stratton]," Nassif testified. He also told the Kebbles he could bribe prosecutors and magistrates. One case against Roger Kebble, Brett's father, "fell away and we got favoured".
Kebble and Stratton's alleged methods were at their crudest in the shooting of former Allan Gray chief investment officer Stephen Mildenhall, who flew from London on Wednesday to testify in the trial. Mildenhall stood in the way of a large Investec loan to JCI. Nassif said that in mid-2005 Agliotti and Stratton gave him names of people "who ... had to be taken care of". "In one meeting Mildenhall came up. I was informed by Agliotti and Stratton that Mildenhall was the real, real problem. Something had to be done." At a meeting at Stratton's Cape Town house, "Stratton said he wanted this thing done" and pointed a sushi knife at Nassif. Nassif said: "I wasn't willing to take on the job of killing Mildenhall." They renegotiated with Stratton and Agliotti, who agreed that Mildenhall should be "taken out of the system for three to six months".
Nassif also revealed for the first time that Brett Kebble's father, Roger, knew about his son's plans to die. After Nassif was asked by Brett Kebble and Stratton to find a pill that could induce a heart attack, Nassif went to Roger's house at night and told him his son had "crazy" plans. "He [Roger Kebble] freaked out, saying since he [Brett] was a teenager, when things got hard, he always threatened this [suicide] ... we left it at that." When Brett Kebble found out Nassif had told his father, "he blasted me from a dizzy height". Meanwhile, the M&G has learned that charges of tax evasion and tax fraud were laid against Agliotti at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria this week. They are understood to flow from a confidential inquiry by the South African Revenue Service into Agliotti's tax affairs, which the M&G revealed in late 2008.
The Kebble trial this week gave a glimpse into the world of South Africa’s short-haired musclemen, who kill for cash. And ruthlessly efficient professionalism was not a quality they brought to mind. The three stooges took the stand in the South Gauteng High Court to explain the murder of Kebble and the shooting of Mildenhall in 2005. Boxer Mikey Schultz, rugby player-turned-bouncer Nigel McGurk and panelbeater Faizel "Kappie" Smith took turns in relaying the muddled events that left Mildenhall shot in the shoulder and Kebble dead In chillingly calm tones they described the plans that led to the hit on Mildenhall, who was calling for Kebble’s removal as chief executive of JCI.
Smith, who admits to being paid for "intimidating people and beating people up", said: "We wanted him taken out of action.” McGurk referred to "taking him [Mildenhall] out of commission"; Schultz said that they "wanted him taken care of". The men did not know Mildenhall and, according to Smith, did not even know what he looked like. They weren't making any money from the job -- but the Kebbles' security chief, Clinton Nassif, assured them that Kebble would look after them financially. On the way to Cape Town, the trio's hired BMW 4X4 ran over a "little buck". They had left their cellphones at home to avoid being traced and had to use a payphone to contact Nassif, who drove down to Colesberg. The three hitchhiked a ride to the sleepy Karoo town and Nassif rented them a Volkswagen Citi Golf to continue to Cape Town. Once there, the Mildenhall shooting was sub-sub-contracted to "two guys at a taxi rank" in Claremont, Cape Town, for R150 000. Smith had found them through "a family member". The shooters staked out the wrong house for three days, mixing up roads with streets, McGurk testified. The shooters waited for Mildenhall to return home from work and shot him in both shoulders. Mildenhall, now resident in the UK, still has pain and has restricted movement in his left shoulder, he testified on Wednesday. The shooters kept Mildenhall's driver's licence "to prove that we had done the job", said McGurk. Smith threw the gun into the sea. Mildenhall's wallet and credit cards were burned under a bridge en route to Johannesburg. In Johannesburg, Smith dropped off his accomplices and then "went to fetch my kid from school".
Smith told the court that a few weeks later Schultz had approached him at his panelbeating shop to say: "Kebble wants to go." Through messages passed from Nassif through Schultz to McGurk and Smith, the three planned to carry out the "assisted suicide" of Kebble for R500 000 each, by feigning a hijacking. On September 22 2005, the night originally planned for the job, it was called off. "I was furious; it was the only thing on my mind all night. I even took a shower," said McGurk. At the next attempt, on September 26, Schultz's wife's black Golf GTI, which they used for the hit, overheated and they had to head home. Kebble was "furious" and told Nassif "we didn’t know what we were putting him through", according to Schultz. The next night, Schultz’s gun jammed at the first two attempts. On the third attempt "Kebble rolled down the window and that was the first time I ever saw him," said Schultz. "I pulled the trigger and the gun fired." McGurk testified he was upset that Schultz had told Nassif about the mishaps. "The car overheated, the gun jammed.
Source: Mail & Guardian
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