Court to hear whether state will pay Mdluli’s legal costs

The fraud and corruption trial of former Crime Intelligence (CI) boss Richard Mdluli and former operatives Heine Barnard and Solomon Lazarus returns to the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday.

In May, Mdluli was given 30 days to apply for state funding in order not to further delay the corruption case related to allegations of gross abuse of the South African Police Service’s (Saps’) CI slush fund.

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Mdluli and his co-accused face multiple charges of corruption, fraud and theft when they were at the helm of the police crime intelligence service from 2008 to 2012.

“The charges are related to allegations of gross abuse of the police intelligence slush fund,” NPA Investigating Directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka said in a statement.

“They include payment of private trips to China and Singapore, private use of witness protection houses, conversion of this property for personal use and the leasing of Mdluli’s private residence to the state in order to pay his bond, among others.”

Mdluli wants the SAPS to pay for his legal fees because the criminal acts he is charged with happened while he was employed by the police.

The court will find out on Friday if he has since managed to get state legal support as ordered by the high court.

Mdluli is already serving a five-year sentence for his September 2020 conviction on kidnapping and assault charges which dated back to 1998.