[JURIST] The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) [official website] of South Africa will charge Jackie Selebi [official profile], chief of the South African Police Services (SAPS) [official website] and President of INTERPOL [official website], with corruption and defeating the course of justice, a NPA spokesman said Friday. Selebi's charges relate to payments he received from a his friend Glenn Agliotti [Mail and Guardian report], a convicted drug smuggler suspected of involvement in the murder of South African mining head Brett Keeble. The NPA said that Selebi had turned a blind eye to Agliotti's drug trafficking, and that he had warned Agliotti that he was a identified in the Keeble murder investigation. Selebi denied any wrongdoing and said that the charges are politically motivated.

Selebi was in court Friday trying to block the prosecution from filing charges, but Pretoria High Court Judge Nico Coetzee denied the request saying "…if the applicant is not charged, the administration of justice will be brought into disrepute." Reuters has more. AFP has additional coverage.