Johannesburg - The Supreme Court of Appeal will on Tuesday hear an appeal by the NPA against a judgment forcing it to continue prosecuting suspended police crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli.
On December 2 last year, Deputy Judge President of the High Courts in Johannesburg and Pretoria, Aubrey Ledwaba, granted leave to appeal against Judge John Murphy's ruling in favour of Freedom Under Law.
On September 23, 2013, Murphy set aside a decision to withdraw charges of money-laundering and murder, and disciplinary proceedings, against Mdluli. He ordered that the charges be reinstated and Mdluli prosecuted.
Ledwaba said there were compelling reasons to grant leave, and there was a reasonable prospect that another court might come to a different conclusion.
Mdluli was suspended amid charges of fraud and corruption, and charges relating to the murder of his ex-lover's husband, Oupa Ramogibe, in February 1999.
He allegedly employed friends and family as intelligence operatives, and misused police funding to buy luxury cars.
He was suspended, but the fraud and corruption charges were withdrawn on December 14, 2011.
Mdluli was reinstated as head of crime intelligence in March 2012.
The NPA provisionally withdrew the murder charges in April that year pending an inquest into the matter.
In May 2012, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa announced that Mdluli was being moved from crime intelligence to the office of the deputy national police commissioner for operations. Later that month, he was suspended a second time amid allegations that emerged from the inquest into Ramogibe's murder.
In November 2012, the inquest cleared him of any involvement in the murder. - Sapa