'Commissioner is smoke-screening. I have evidence and hopefully they'll lock him up'
The Star - Online
Tuesday, November 07, 2006 Edition 2
Alex Eliseev
The man accusing National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi of being entangled in the criminal underworld is adamant the top cop must go to jail.
Yesterday The Star spoke to Paul O'Sullivan, the man identified by Selebi as the author of a massive docket alleging the country's police bosses are running a Mafia-like organisation.
On Sunday, Selebi - also president of Interpol - broke five months of silence, telling journalists his hands were clean and that a nasty smear campaign was being waged against him.
He said O'Sullivan, former security chief at the Airports Company SA (Acsa), had made it clear he would stop at nothing to get at him.
Selebi is accused of being the don of the "cop Mafia", accepting a R50 000 bribe and trying to prevent O'Sullivan from cancelling a R130-million contract between Acsa and a security company (with which the commissioner allegedly had links).
He has invited the Scorpions to probe his finances, without search warrants.
O'Sullivan said that, through the media conference, Selebi "has opened the door".
"Why is he playing golf and having dinner with gangsters and criminals?" he fumed.
O'Sullivan confirmed he had compiled the docket against Selebi and handed it to the Scorpions back in 2001.
He had tried to open a police case, but "the police refused to investigate their own".
The docket was not 144 pages long, he said, but about 750 pages.
O'Sullivan denied launching a smear campaign and leaking the docket to the media.
"I have evidence and hopefully they'll lock him up," he said.
"Selebi is smoke-screening and trying to deflect attention from the obvious."
Selebi said O'Sullivan had failed to get a security clearance to hold his position as security chief and had been investigated by the police for three separate crimes.
The top cop also said O'Sullivan had worked for a foreign intelligence agency.
O'Sullivan called these statements "rubbish".
"I categorically state that once this commissioner is booted out and locked up, the crime levels (in South Africa) can be dealt with."
Selebi's spokesperson, Director Sally de Beer, responded yesterday by saying: "This individual's public defamatory comments go to prove that he does have a personal vendetta and, as we speak, we are definitely getting legal advice."
Selebi's No 2, Commissioner André Pruis, on Sunday said the police were willing to help investigate the claims and would even go as far as to ask President Thabo Mbeki to deal with the claims.
They had challenged O'Sullivan to join them at the news conference, but he refused.
O'Sullivan has vowed to take his case to the courts and test it there.