Three+witnesses+gone+including+triggerman,+Badat+and+Ajam,+Star

Saturday Star, Johannesburg, November 18, 2006 //Edition 1//
=There's no sign of three witnesses - including the suspected triggerman=


 * Noor-Jehan Yoro Badat and Kashiefa Ajam**

So where are the three Scorpions witnesses who have apparently turned against Glenn Agliotti, the man arrested over the murder of Brett Kebble?

Reports yesterday suggested that Agliotti associate Clinton Nassif had turned state witness against him, and that three other men - including the man who allegedly shot Kebble - had been granted immunity from prosecution in return for testifying against Agliotti.

National Commissioner Jackie Selebi also announced that the police had been poised to arrest the three men - whose names are known to the Saturday Star - but had then discovered that the Scorpions had beaten them to the punch and offered the men immunity.

Then claims were published yesterday that the triggerman had, subsequent to making a statement to the Scorpions, disappeared. Sources variously told the Saturday Star, however, that he had fled to Botswana, or that he and the others were in protective custody.

But the Scorpions and the police were tight-lipped yesterday. Gauteng Scorpions head advocate Gerhard Nel, who is leading the prosecution against Agliotti, said he would disclose the names of the witnesses only at Agliotti's expected bail application on December 8.

However, all three witnesses are associated with Elite, a grouping of nightclub bouncers linked to violence, drug- dealing and protection rackets around Joburg in recent years.

At least two of the men were also named in an intelligence dossier drawn up by security consultant Paul O'Sullivan as being business associates of Nassif in nightclubs and brothels.

Mike Bolhuis, the owner of Specialised Security Services and a man who has dedicated himself to cleaning up the bouncer industry, said last night he knew of several state witnesses in the Kebble case, and he described them as "extremely dangerous".

"They need to be behind bars. If they are on the loose, there will be other deaths," predicted Bolhuis, who has been investigating Elite "intensively for the past eight years".

Kebble, said Bolhuis, "lived by the sword and he died by the sword". Kebble had, parallel to his world of arts and wealth, embraced the shady, underground domain that Bolhuis fiercely opposed.

"I knew Brett, and he wasn't clean. He was involved in racketeering."


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3545852**

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