South Africa sentences neo-Nazi leader to prison
June 17, 1997
Web posted at: 8:27 p.m. EDT (0027 GMT)(CNN) -- A South African white supremacist who promised a race war was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for assaults on two black men.
Eugene TerreBlanche, leader of the neo-Nazi Afrikaner Resistance Movement, was impassive as Magistrate Chris Eksteen rebuked him for his show of anger when the verdict was handed down last April.
He said it confirmed the court's views that "the accused is a person who easily resorts to violence and tolerates no opposition."
TerreBlanche was convicted of attempting to murder former employee Paul Motshabi, 27. The victim suffered severe brain damage when Terreblanche beat him last year. He also was convicted of setting his dog on another black man in an earlier incident.
TerreBlanche, 53, called his sentence a "mockery," and insisted he would never be locked up. Pending an appeal, he was released on $4,444 bail, raised by supporters. He was also granted permission to appeal to the high court and was ordered not to leave the country.
For two decades, TerreBlanche has led the most radical wing of Afrikaner nationalists, who seek an autonomous state for the Dutch-descended white settlers of South Africa.
The group set off bombs that killed 21 people on the eve of the 1994 all-race vote that ended apartheid. More than three dozen of its members were arrested.
But TerreBlanche's threats of war against black rule proved empty as Nelson Mandela's African National Congress took power.
At TerreBlanche's sentencing in Potchefstroom, southwest of Johannesburg, more than two dozen armed police surrounded the courtroom's public gallery. Outside the courthouse, police erected a razor-wire fence to keep people away from the front of the building and used dogs to drive back scores of blacks who were protesting TerreBlanche's group.
Related stories:
- South Africa's Truth Commission travels to hear apartheid abuses - December 27, 1996
- S. African apartheid assassin jailed for life - October 30, 1996
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