South Africa's 'Prime Evil' apartheid killer de Kock up for parole

[inanna]

Source: Reuters

13 minutes ago



PRETORIA (Reuters) - Apartheid death-squad leader Eugene de Kock, dubbed 'Prime Evil' for his role in the torture and murder of black South African activists in the 1980s and early 1990s, will learn on Friday whether he will be released on parole after 20 years in prison.

<snip>

As head of an apartheid counter-insurgency unit at Vlakplaas, a farm 20 km (15 miles) west of Pretoria, de Kock is believed to have been responsible for more atrocities than any other man in the efforts to preserve white rule.

Arrested in 1994, the year Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) came to power, he was sentenced two years later to 212 years in prison on charges ranging from murder and attempted murder to kidnapping and fraud.

However, at a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up in 1995 to try to unearth - and, in some cases, forgive - crimes committed by both sides, de Kock came clean about the killing of many ANC activists.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africas-prime-evil-apartheid-killer-kock-parole-072408397.html

[madokie]

1. Let him die in jail

[FarrenH]

2. De Kock and his unit

actually operated outside of the bounds of Apartheid law, so they were criminals even in terms of the previous regime. They were still government funded and those in the highest reaches of power still knew exactly what they were doing, but public revelations of their murderous activities were actually a shock to many white supporters of Apartheid raised on a diet of "terrorism" fearmongering and sanitized portrayals of what Apartheid really was. Which is why despite his appearance at the Truth and Reconciliation commission he still got jail time. While many who committed crimes against humanity under cover of Apartheid law got off scot-free.