McBride and co-accused granted bail

Suspended Ipid head Robert McBride and his two co-accused were each granted R1,500 bail by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Sello Maema asked the court that they be required to hand their passports to the investigating officer and get written permission if they wanted to leave the country.

They all agreed to the conditions and the matter was postponed to April 15.

McBride, Matthew Sesoko, and Innocent Khuba face charges of fraud and defeating the ends of justice following their investigation of former head of the Hawks, Lieutenant General Anwa Dramat.

• McBride unfazed by charges being laid in rendition-related case
   

Dramat was accused of being involved in the illegal rendition of five Zimbabwean nationals in 2010. McBride allegedly changed an Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) report implicating Dramat in the renditions in order to protect him.

Law firm Werksmans was asked to investigate discrepancies in the two reports. “Notwithstanding that the purported reasons for the publication of a second report do not appear to relate to Dramat, it is clear from a perusal of the first and second report, that a large volume of information that relates to, and in fact incriminates, Dramat which appeared in the first report, has been removed from the second report,” Werksmans found.

“These portions of the first report which were removed have the effect of distancing Dramat insofar as his involvement with the rendition is concerned."

McBride maintained that the first report had not taken all the facts into account.

Speaking to Talk Radio 702 on Monday morning, McBride said charging him was an attempt to justify unlawful decisions.

"There is no crime, there is no misdemeanour. We have been charged for doing our work and the fact that the [police] ministry is unhappy with the outcome of an investigation is the minister's problem. It's not our problem," he said.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku said they would not discuss the merits of the case in public.

He urged McBride to produce whatever evidence he had, in court.

"The trial date will be set. We are ready and the investigations are completed," said Mfaku.

Source: News 24