Ex-police chief Jackie Selebi asked former prosecutions head Vusi Pikoli why charges against then tax fugitive Billy Rautenbach were not being dismissed, the High Court in Johannesburg heard on Tuesday.
Pikoli and Selebi had arrived together in the Eastern Cape on a police jet for a joint anti-corruption task team visit.
"As I was walking with the accused, he said to me: "You guys, why are you not dropping charges against Billy Rautenbach?" Pikoli testified in Selebi's trial on corruption charges.
"I asked him why [he was concerned in the matter]," Pikoli told the court.
Pikoli said Selebi replied that he was in possession of a letter that could cause embarrassment to former chief prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka and the NPA.
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"I dismissed that because I felt it was not a matter that he should be concerned with. I just brushed him off."
Pikoli said after this incident they did not discuss the matter again.
Rautenbach, who lives in Zimbabwe, spent almost a decade on the run before entering into a plea-sentence agreement with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on tax evasion charges on September 16, just 16 days before the start of Selebi's trial.
Under the deal, Rautenbach, as a director of SA Botswana Hauliers, agreed to pay a fine of R40 million on 326 counts of fraud.
Selebi is being tried on a count of corruption and another of defeating the ends of justice in connection with at least R1.2 million he allegedly received from convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti, Rautenbach and others in return for favours.
Agliotti previously testified that Rautenbach paid him US100,000 (about R743,500) as an alleged bribe for Selebi to assist him with his run-ins with the law.
He said Selebi, who was also president of the international police body Interpol, was to check whether there were any international warrants out for Rautenbach.
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