January 28, 1996
Web posted at: 2:00 p.m. EST (1900 GMT)
TEL AVIV (CNN) -- The confessed assassin of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin Sunday defended the killing of the former prime minister as a political act against a "terrorist," throwing defense lawyers' plans into disarray.
"I am not a criminal. I acted from ideology and I have not come to defend myself, but to explain my act," Yigal Amir, 25, told the three-judge panel in his trial on charges of premeditated murder and assault.
Amir admitted that his confession to shooting Rabin had not been forced out of him, as lawyer Jonathan Ray Goldberg had charged. And he said that "apart from a few minor details," the chilling police reconstruction of the shooting in which he took part accurately reflected what happened.
Goldberg was visibly taken aback by Amir's statement, after he tried to have both the reconstruction and the police witness statements ruled inadmissible.
"I acted like a soldier who has just killed a terrorist in Lebanon," Amir said, explaining the shooting.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- American black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan met Sunday with South African President Nelson Mandela and said he agrees with his anti- racial views.
Last week, the leader of the U.S.-based Nation of Islam visited with Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Gadhafi. Farrakhan has made statements attacking Jews and whites. He met with Mandela for 40 minutes.
"All of the priciples that President Mandela has outlined, we agreed with totally. Islam is a religion which if practiced, disallows racialism, racism, injustice, tyranny and oppression," Farrakhan said.
South African newspapers have questioned the wisdom of his trip because of the country's racial tension. The visit also has angered extreme right-wing whites who described him last week as a pile of horse manure.
Mandela said he had met many people with opposing views and agreed to meet Farrakhan, despite the opposition. He informed Farrakhan of the African National Congress' commitment to end racism, he said.
"In the 1950s one of the principles we established was non-racialism. We have defended that policy without fear and we have now triumphed. We are building a non-racial society in this country," the president said.
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