Nigeria Content Online

A
South African court on Tuesday sentenced the country’s former police
chief to 15 years imprisonment after he was convicted of graft and
became one of the most senior officials brought to justice for
corruption.

Jackie Selebi,
formerly a leading anti-apartheid activist and well-connected in the
ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, had been found guilty
last month of receiving bribes from a drug kingpin.

Judge Meyer Joffe said in handing down the sentence that Selebi had embarrassed the state, the police force and the court.

“At no stage during
the trial did the accused display any indication of remorse. The
accused lied and fabricated evidence in an endeavour to escape the
consequences of his conduct,” Joffe said.

Selebi remains free on bail on condition that he submits an application for leave to appeal against the sentence within 14 days.

Analysts said the
conviction of Selebi — a former president of the international police
body Interpol — was a positive development for the country, showing it
was ready to tackle its growing corruption problem.

Prosecutors were
seeking more than the possible minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Selebi’s lawyers were seeking a suspended sentence and a fine.

Last month, Judge
Joffe said in his decision that Selebi had received at least 120,000
rand ($16,500) from Glenn Agliotti, a convicted drug trafficker who was
one of the main prosecution witnesses.

Joffe had found
Selebi not guilty of defeating the ends of justice but said he did not
find the former national commissioner of the South African Police
Service (SAPS) a credible witness.

Prosecutors had
contended that Selebi had links to organized crime figures and received
about 1.2 million rand to ignore their drug trafficking.

Selebi was a close
ally of former President Thabo Mbeki and analysts did not expect his
conviction to harm current President Jacob Zuma.

The ANC has said the guilty verdict showed no one was above the law in South Africa.