WORLD : Ex-Officer to Hang for Racist Deaths
A regional court today sentenced a white former policeman to hang for killing seven blacks and an Indian in two shooting sprees he took pride in and viewed as the start of a race war.
Justice Louis Harms said there were no extenuating circumstances to spare Barend Strydom, 23, from the gallows.
The killings were committed “in an unfeeling and cold-blooded manner that I have never before experienced or heard of,” Harms said. “Mass murder or racial murder will not be tolerated by this court.”
The case has been one of the most dramatic in South Africa, with relatives of the black victims and white extremists supportive of Strydom crowding into Pretoria Supreme Court over the last 10 days to hear detailed testimony about the defendant’s racist beliefs.
After standing impassively for an hour while the judge read his ruling, Strydom gulped a glass of water when the sentence was pronounced.
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