Who is clinton nassif

It emerged that Nassif was a section witness in a drug matter in He subsequently entered into a plea agreement with the state on the same charges. His sentence of 10 years suspended for five was a 'slap on the wrist', said Hodes. Hodes suggested the reason he did not receive indemnity in that case was because he had lied in his statement. Nassif denied this saying he was advised by his attorney to enter into the plea agreement because he had left out 'detail' in his statement to the state.

I call it being dishonest,' said Hodes, who compared the drug case with the current one, accusing Nassif of 'turning on everybody' to get out of trouble himself. To which Nassif responded curtly: 'Rubbish. But the NPA knew nothing about it. In a heated response, Stratton's attorneys asked Vink to leave their client alone. Nassif denied any knowledge of the e-mail from Vink to Stratton. Hodes asked him whether he would have pleaded guilty to resolve the matter, had all the other players agreed to do so.

Glenn Agliotti's high-priced lawyer is circling "King Rat", the state's star witness, Clinton Nassif, poised to destroy his evidence. Nassif earned the nickname after he shopped Agliotti in return for indemnity for the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble. Soon afterwards, the words "King Rat" - the title of a novel by James Clavell - were spray-painted on the wall of Nassif's home in the southern Johannesburg suburb of Bassonia. Agliotti's advocate, Laurance Hodes, wasted no time slashing at Nassif's credibility when he began cross-examining him late yesterday afternoon.

He said Nassif did not "qualify" for the freedom he had received from the Scorpions in exchange for testifying against Agliotti and his erstwhile friend, former police chief Jackie Selebi. He was arrested in , a year after Kebble's death, for insurance fraud after trying to have his Mercedes written off by dropping it to the ground with a forklift after a minor accident.

The Scorpions used the insurance fraud case to turn the screws on Nassif, who sang like a canary in November about crimes relating to Kebble, Selebi and Agliotti of which he had knowledge.

Hodes charged: "When you had problems with your fraud case. Let me sink other people so I can walk free. Hodes shot back: "You are lying. You were told that you had to identify the relationship between Agliotti and the former police commissioner Jackie Selebi.

You had to spill the beans on Agliotti in the statement, and on Mr Selebi. Nassif responded that his job was to provide security services to Stratton and Kebble, not to Agliotti. Nassif told the court that, on behalf of Kebble and Stratton, he had his employees tap phones, "frame" people, illegally obtain bank statements and cellphone records, and place bugging devices in the homes and cars of their enemies.

In return, he had "knocked" the Kebbles - keeping money they gave him to pay bribes to magistrates and prosecutors. Barely audible, Nassif replied: "I didn't include Glenn [Agliotti's name] in every sentence. Earlier yesterday, Nassif testified that a few months after he began working for Kebble and Stratton, he and Agliotti - whom he had met while playing golf in - were "summoned" to Kebble's home. Brett Kebble was very convincing," he said. This is the first time the Kebble family has been said to have had any knowledge of the so-called assisted suicide.

The family has always vehemently denied that Kebble wanted to take his own life, saying he would "never do that".