SOUTH AFRICA: An Irish-born security expert is at the centre of a major policing controversy that has divided South Africa's law enforcement agencies and threatens to envelop the presidency.
Paul O'Sullivan, a native of Tipperary who has been living in South Africa since the early 1990s, has accused the country's police chief, Jackie Selebi, of consorting with crime bosses and of protecting criminal interests.
The former police officer - who once served in British military intelligence - has, among other things, exposed Mr Selebi's links to a shady businessman who is due in court on a bail application on Friday, having been charged with the murder of South African mining magnate Brett Kebble.
Mr O'Sullivan says he now fears for his life, and he has prepared a dossier of evidence against Mr Selebi to be used in the case of an "untimely death".
"I am very reluctant to get into this position," he said. "But if a country is good enough to live in it's good enough to fight for."
At the heart of the controversy is Mr Selebi's relationship with Glenn "the Landlord" Agliotti, a man described in police files as the head of a multimillion-euro drug syndicate and other organised crime rackets. Last month, South Africa's elite police force, the Scorpions, arrested Mr Agliotti for the murder of Kebble, a businessman with close links to the ruling African National Congress, who was gunned down by unknown assailants in 2005.
The Scorpions, an FBI-style squad operating independently of the South African Police Service (SAPS), is also investigating Mr Selebi, and has been in close contact with Mr O'Sullivan in this regard.
Mr O'Sullivan said he had been happy to deal with the Scorpions behind the scenes but Mr Selebi "outed" him last month, accusing the Irishman in public of orchestrating a "smear campaign" against him.
Details of Mr O'Sullivan's dossier have since been leaked to the media, and Mr O'Sullivan says there are even more serious revelations to come about the activities of the national police commissioner.
"The details have been parked offshore and out of the reach of you and your co-conspirators," O'Sullivan wrote to Selebi this week, adding that the files would be made public unless the police chief stepped down.
Certain police sources have made counter-allegations against Mr O'Sullivan, accusing him of being an active MI5 agent. But the security expert told The Irish Times, "in good old Irish language, that's a load of bollocks".
He confirmed that he worked for a time with British intelligence but refused to go into details, citing the Official Secrets Act and sensitivities surrounding his status as an Irishman in a foreign army.
He still has family in Ireland and visits the country regularly, having first emigrated to London in the depressed 1960s, starting work as a building labourer just six days shy of his 15th birthday.
Mr O'Sullivan moved to South Africa in 1990, becoming a police officer and later a detective in the Johannesburg district. He was then head-hunted by the Airports Company of South Africa, where - as security chief - he boasted over 1,000 arrests in 18 months.
Unexpectedly, however, he was dismissed from the post following what he believes was an orchestrated campaign against him by Mr Selebi. According to Mr O'Sullivan, this stemmed from the Irishman's decision to terminate a lucrative security contract at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport that Mr Selebi had allegedly been supporting for the benefit of a private company.
Mr Selebi has since been embroiled in various controversies and was most recently caught driving a luxury vehicle that police had confiscated from a criminal.
Under pressure from the Scorpions' inquiries, the police chief has also admitted a longstanding friendship with Mr Agliotti. The two men spoke to one another within minutes of Brett Kebble's death but Mr Selebi claims that they never discussed criminal matters.
Calls for an independent inquiry into the affair have been rejected by president Thabo Mbeki, who told a group of church leaders recently to trust him on Mr Selebi.
Mr O'Sullivan, who became a South African citizen 14 years ago, said that by "serving my country" and pursuing the police commissioner he believed he was following a proud tradition among Irish emigres.
"Serving your country - it's what most Irish do, whether they make their home in Sydney or New York or Johannesburg." He added: "Why should I pack my bags and leave the country? I could pack my bags but what about those who can't - what about those left behind facing an untenable crime situation?"
For Mr Selebi, he has a somewhat more pointed message. In his latest letter to the police chief he wrote: "Never mount an unlawful attack on a man with Irish blood and expect him to roll over - it just doesn't happen."