SOUTH AFRICA: EUGENE TERREBLANCHE IS SENTENCED TO SIX YEARS IN JAIL

(17 Jun 1997) English/Nat

White supremacist Eugene TerreBlanche was released on bail on Tuesday after being sentenced to six years in prison for attempted murder and assault.

Supporters raised the 20-thousand rand required for him to make bail pending an appeal.

TerreBlanche was convicted in April of the attempted murder of one of his black workers Paul Motshabi in March 1996 and also for grievous bodily harm.

TerreBlanche said he would appeal against both the sentence and the convictions.

Eugene TerreBlanche was taken to the Potchefstroom Prison while court official counted coins amounting to the 20-thousand rand (four-thousand and 444 U-S dollars) required for him to make bail.

The leader of the neo-Nazi Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) was then taken back to the court where he thanked his supporters before leaving in a car.

TerreBlanche was convicted in April for the savage beating of one of his black workers, Paul Motshabi, who was left an invalid.

The charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm related to him setting his dog on John Ndzima, a gas station attendant, two weeks before the attack on Motshabi.

Supporters of TerreBlanche criticised the sentence as an attempt by the A-N-C-led government to crush any opposition to the political system.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It is not the magistrate on the bench, it is the A-N-C. It is just an attempt to eliminate political opposition by mismanaging the justice system."
SUPER CAPTION: Robert van Tonder, Orde Boerevolk leader

TerreBlanche's A-W-B threatened race war against black rule and set off a series of bombs that killed 21 people on the eve of South Africa's first all-race election in 1994.

Outside the courthouse, police had strung a wall of razor wire to keep back a crowd of protesters, most of them black.

Some in the crowd carried placards denouncing the A-W-B and demanding justice for the injured worker.

Defence lawyer Danie Bischoff told the judge on Tuesday that TerreBlanche still believed he was innocent of the charges.

The lawyer also argued that it was the first time TerreBlanche had been convicted of a non-political crime, but the judge was unmoved and imposed the six-year sentences.

Outside the courthouse, protesters chanted as the remaining bail money arrived.

One man expressed his approval of the sentence imposed.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"You must see the law being done to these people like Mr TerreBlanche."
SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop

The demonstration was not violent, although a few protesters were injured by a police dog.

If TerreBlanche's sentences are upheld on appeal, the court then have to decide if he will have to serve the 18-month suspended sentence he received for his inciting violence conviction in 1992.

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