/ 5 November 2009

Dianne Muller labels Selebi a liar

The black-clad blonde looked the former police National Commissioner straight in the eye — twice — and told him he’s a liar.

The South Gauteng High Court was stunned into silence on Thursday morning when Dianne Muller, events manager and former fiancée of drug-lord Glenn Agliotti, testified Selebi was lying if he denied being bribed by her former lover.

At the end of her cross-examination by Selebi’s counsel Jaap Cilliers SC, Cilliers put Selebi’s blanket denials of bribery to the witness.

‘I put it to you that the accused [Selebi] denies ever receiving any payments from Mr Agliotti,” Cilliers told Muller.

Muller then turned her head towards Selebi, who was sitting five metres away in the dock, and loudly said to his face: ‘That is not the truth”.

Cilliers continued: ‘I also put it to you that the accused denies that his wife received a handbag from Mr Agliotti.”

Muller turned to face Ann Selebi, the accused’s wife, and said: ‘Glenn told me it was for Ann.”

Cilliers: ‘And the accused further denies that Mr Agliotti bought clothes at Fubu [clothing store in Sandton City] for his children.”

Muller, again, looked Selebi in the eye and said: ‘That is a lie.”

After the dramatic interchanges, Cilliers finished his cross-examination and chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel informed the court that his next witness, Muller’s father and bookkeeper Martin Flint, would only be able to testify on Friday morning.

Nel told the court that auditors from KPMG would start to give evidence on the outcome of a forensic probe into Selebi’s finances on Monday.

Earlier on Thursday, Cilliers suggested to Muller that she was adjusting her evidence to suit Agliotti’s. Cilliers specifically referred to Muller’s evidence about her allegedly seeing Selebi leave with a bank bag filled with R110 000 cash in 2004. Muller denied this.

Cilliers asked her why she stayed in contact with Agliotti and travelled abroad with him after ending their engagement in 2003.

‘He has never been my enemy. We still talk to this day … I didn’t throw him out [of her house], I put him out very amicably. I never fought with him,” Muller told court.

Cilliers told her: ‘My suspicion [of why they kept contact] is rather that it was [about] money,” to which Muller responded: ‘What did I benefit? Do I have any Louis Vuitton shoes or handbags? You are free to come to my house and see for yourself.”