South Africa’s Top Policeman In Legal Trouble, Reports Say

JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 27 — South African prosecutors have secured an arrest warrant for Jackie Selebi, the national police commissioner and president of Interpol, according to news reports here late Thursday.

Jackie Selebi, South Africa’s national police commissioner.

There were few details about the case. Persistent news reports have linked Mr. Selebi, who is also a leading figure in domestic politics, to organized crime figures. It was not clear why Mr. Selebi had not been arrested or charged.

But the warrant, which the news reports said was secured by the National Prosecuting Authority, could be linked to a larger struggle within South Africas governing party, the African National Congress, to determine the partys political future. One week ago, President Thabo Mbeki suspended Vusi Pikoli, the director of the National Prosecuting Authority, citing a collapse in relations with the Justice Ministry.

On Thursday, Mr. Mbekis rivals questioned whether that suspension had been prompted by a decision by prosecutors to charge Mr. Selebi, a political ally of Mr. Mbeki and a veteran of South Africas liberation struggle.

In telephone interviews late Thursday, neither the South African Police Service nor the National Prosecuting Authority would confirm or deny the warrants existence. The warrant was reported by SABC, a public broadcaster, and by The Mail & Guardian, a weekly newspaper that has aggressively reported on Mr. Selebis activities.

Mr. Selebis shadow in both politics and scandal has loomed large since September 2005, when a South African billionaire mining magnate and political benefactor, Brett Kebble, was fatally shot while driving in a Johannesburg suburb, in what may have been an assassination.

Investigators quickly charged a man suspected of being a drug kingpin, Glenn Agliotti, in connection with the murder, only to find that he was a close friend of Mr. Selebi. In fact, cellphone records indicated that Mr. Agliotti called Mr. Selebi from near the scene of Mr. Kebbles murder shortly after the shooting.

Mr. Selebi later rejected demands that he resign, saying he was not tainted by mere friendship with an accused criminal, and Mr. Mbeki has defended him.

Some critics of Mr. Mbeki are now demanding to know why the arrest warrant for Mr. Selebi has not been executed, and whether the suspension of the Prosecuting Authoritys director, Mr. Pikoli, is somehow tied to the delay.

One has to ask, is there a link? said Helen Zille, the leader of the rival Democratic Alliance. We must hear what the charges are against him.

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