Apartheid-Era Killer Is Granted Amnesty

Notorious apartheid killer Eugene de Kock was granted amnesty by South Africa’s truth commission for his role in the 1985 murder of four anti-apartheid leaders. The killings were among the most gruesome of the 1980s, when the white National Party government used draconian force to quell black unrest. In a separate decision, De Kock and his ex-boss, former Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok, were among 23 security officers given amnesty for the 1987 bombing of a trade union headquarters. De Kock, who is serving a 262-year jail sentence, is seeking amnesty for 107 counts of murder, torture and fraud committed while in command of the Vlakplaas death squad. Observers say he is unlikely to win enough reprieves to escape dying in jail. “The decision [on the bombing] was made on the basis that their objectives were political,” a commission spokesman said.