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McBride lawyer in prosecution furore

ROSHAN DEHAL:Wealth of experience. © Unknown.
ROSHAN DEHAL:Wealth of experience. © Unknown.

Simon Nare

Simon Nare

Robert McBride's defence lawyer has been appointed to prosecute in the internal hearing of three suspended Metro officers who have been having running battles with their chief.

The hearing for the three officers - Stanley Sagathevan, Patrick Johnson and Itumeleng Koko - got under way on Monday and was postponed to October 1 and 3.

Sowetan established that McBride's defence advocate Roshan Dehal is the chief prosecutor in the hearing and is assisted by two internal prosecutors.

Ekurhuleni acting Metro chief Mkhabela Sibeko confirmed that Dehal had been appointed prosecutor in the hearing.

He dismissed any speculation that there might be a conflict of interests in Dehal prosecuting in the hearing.

"On the issue of external and internal processes these issues are as different as cheese is to chalk," he said.

In a letter to the three officers' lawyer, Dehal wrote: "As you must have seen from interdict papers, your clients are shortly to be charged in a disciplinary tribunal, and it is in this respect that I write to you.

"I have only just been appointed as a prosecutor, to prosecute those charges."

The officers are facing more than three thousand charges. Some of the charges relate to McBride's drink and driving incident.

Dehal will also be representing McBride in his upcoming criminal court case.

McBride has been charged with drunken driving, defeating the ends of justice and fraud.

The charges arose from a car accident in which McBride crashed his luxury car.

The three officers were the first at the scene and removed McBride before he received medical attention and before police arrived.

Among the charges against the three officers include fraud and those for removing their boss from the accident scene before medical attention.

They have also been charged with allegedly assaulting a colleague, Roelf Schoeman, who was recently reported to have been granted six-months leave by McBride

McBride also apparently instructed the three to sign affidavits stating that he was sober at time of the accident.

On Monday the three officers asked for more time to study the charges against them.

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