Jackie Selebi steps down not to sully Interpol reputation

The president of Interpol has resigned the post to face corruption allegations in his native South Africa, the international police organization said Sunday.

Photo: Jackie Selebi steps down not to sully Interpol reputation

Jackie Selebi, South Africa's national police commissioner, said in his letter of resignation to Interpol that he was stepping down as president because he did not want the allegations to sully the organization's reputation, the AP reports.

Selebi was a representative of the World Federation of Democratic Youth in Budapest, Hungary from 1983 - 1987. Thereafter he was elected Head of the ANC Youth League and member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC in 1987.

In 1991 he was responsible for the repatriation of ANC exiles and in 1993 was appointed Head of the Department of Welfare of the ANC. Selebi was elected Honourable Member of Parliament during the 1994 elections. In 1995, Selebi was appointed South Africa's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Geneva. Switzerland. In 1998 he received a Human Rights Award from the International Service for Human Rights.

On the 12 January 2008, South African President Thabo Mbeki effectively suspended Selebi via an "extended leave of absence," and appointed Timothy Charles Williams as acting National Commissioner of Police. Selebi is alleged by the NPA to have received $170,000 from convicted criminal Glenn Agliotti over a five-year period.