By Karyn Maughan and Alex Eliseev
Jackie Selebi isn't happy about being tried by a judge who he believes is out to get him - but there's nothing he can do about it.
After an impassive Selebi on Friday heard Judge Meyer Joffe refuse to recuse himself, his lawyers said the former national police commissioner would abide by the decision.
Asked how Selebi felt about the ruling, his attorney Wynanda Coetzee answered: "We don't think it's proper to comment now."
It is, however, understood that Selebi had expected Judge Joffe to rule against him.
Judge Joffe on Friday spent more than an hour painstakingly rebuffing each of Selebi's 16 complaints of bias against him as "ill-founded", "baseless" and "most unfortunate".
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"The application for my recusal is dismissed," he said at the end.
"I am unable to conclude on the papers before me that any or all the complaints of the accused show actual bias, albeit subconscious bias, or give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias."
The judge said he knew Selebi's corruption trial would be a long and difficult one that received constant media attention. But his duty was not to "head for calmer waters" by recusing himself, "no matter how strong the temptation may be".
He also refused to withdraw his concerns about the alleged leaking of video footage of star witness Glenn Agliotti to a weekend newspaper.
Selebi maintained the judge had expressed more concern about the leaking of the recording than its contents, which are believed to further discredit Agliotti as a witness.
But Judge Joffe yesterday rejected this argument, stating he was entitled to express his concerns about how the footage came to be shown to a newspaper.
Addressing Selebi's apprehension that the judge should have intervened in prosecutor Gerrie Nel's conduct of the trial, Judge Joffe repeated his earlier sentiment that it was the duty of Selebi's advocate, Jaap Celliers SC, to raise such complaints and that he should have done so earlier.
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