By Johnathan Paoli
Members of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) arrested MP Fadiel Adams at the Parliament Village in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Speaking to the media from the back of a secured police van, Adams said: “I am about to be assaulted, I am probably going to get waterboarded, this is how it works, I am telling you what is going to happen, but they (the police) can do their worst.”
Earlier on Tuesday, SAPS said publicly that a warrant was issued for Adams in connection with allegations of fraud and defeating the ends of justice linked to the murder investigation of former ANC Youth League secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa.
SAPS spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said investigators had established that Adams visited the convicted hitman in the Magaqa case and obtained statements from him.
“We learned that Mr. Fadiel Adams went to go and visit the convicted and sentenced hitman on this particular case where he took down statements. So while investigating it then came to our attention that he was there together with other people, where he took down the statement of this hitman,” Mathe said.
Speaking to eNCA before his arrest, Adams said that he was willing to cooperate with law enforcement but questioned the conduct of police.
“When my attorney contacted them and…said my client is happy to hand himself over, what is he being charged with, they didn’t want to tell us. But now they can tell the nation. This is nothing more than a smear campaign,” Adams said.
He said the case against him was fundamentally flawed because it was being pursued by individuals he had previously accused of wrongdoing.
He said his court application would challenge why he was being investigated by people he had opened cases against, and the procedures followed in issuing the warrant for his arrest.
Mathe said police wanted to know in what capacity Adams was visiting the “hitman”.
“[W]hat type of information was he sourcing from that particular hitman?” she asked.
She said that the matter had been referred to prosecutors in KwaZulu-Natal.
“That is when we presented the docket before the DPP of KZN and saw that there is a case to answer by Mr. Fadiel Adams because his actions constitute a charge of defeating and obstructing the course of justice as well as fraud,” Mathe said.
Mathe said that the Magaqa investigation remains active and restricted to authorised officials.
“He is not an investigator and he is not a member of the SAPS nor is he a member of the DPCI. On what grounds was he visiting that particular hitman?” she asked.
Adams, however, maintained that his actions were part of exposing corruption within SAPS.
He cited alleged claims made by the hitman implicating senior police figures, including allegations that Crime Intelligence officials facilitated the murder of Magaqa.
“He alleges that [Lt-Gen] Dumisani Khumalo is involved in the plot to kill Sindiso. Of course, Sindiso was exposing corruption in KZN as I am doing in Cape Town,” Adams said.
“So this poor man was killed for doing the right thing, but then the hitman takes it further. He says that we were escorted to the scene of the crime and from the scene of the crime by crime intelligence. Then he takes it a step further and says, oh by the way, the AK-47 we used to kill that man, it was bought with the money from crime intelligence,” he said.
Adams is expected to appear in court later on Tuesday.
This is a developing story.
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