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S Africa issues warrant against chief of Interpol

South African prosecutors secured an arrest warrant for Jackie Selebi, the national police commissioner and president of Interpol, news reports said late on Thursday.

There were few details about the case. Persistent news reports have linked Selebi, who is also a leading figure in domestic politics, to organized crime figures. It was not clear why Selebi had not been arrested or charged.

But the warrant, which the news reports said was secured by the National Prosecuting Authority, could be linked to a larger struggle within South Africa's governing party, the African National Congress, to determine the party's political future. One week ago, South African President Thabo Mbeki suspended Vusi Pikoli, the director of the National Prosecuting Authority, citing a collapse in relations with the Justice Ministry.

On Thursday, Mbeki's rivals questioned whether that suspension had been prompted by a decision by prosecutors to charge Selebi, a political ally of Mbeki and a veteran of South Africa's liberation struggle.

In interviews late on Thursday, neither the South African Police Service nor the National Prosecuting Authority would confirm or deny the warrant's existence. The warrant was reported by SABC, a public broadcaster, and by the Mail & Guardian, a weekly newspaper that has aggressively reported on Selebi's activities.

Selebi's shadow in both politics and scandal has loomed large since September 2005, when a South African billionaire mining magnate and political benefactor, Brett Kebble, was fatally shot while driving in a Johannesburg suburb, in what may have been an assassination.

Investigators quickly charged a man suspected of being a drug kingpin, Glenn Agliotti, in connection with the murder, only to find that he was a close friend of Selebi. In fact, cellphone records indicated that Agliotti called Selebi from near the scene of Kebble's murder shortly after the shooting.
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