Dave thanks for the posting, the decision of the
racist judge did not surprise me.I am happy that the
matter is going to the appeal court.It is said to be
the most expensive court case in South African
history.If South African government want to proof to
the world that HIV/AIDS epidemic is a biological
warfare of racist government I think they should
pursue the case.
Dave, finally I want to contact you but have lost my
mobile. How is South Hampton? I hope you are fine and
doing well.I will contact you soon.
Respect!
Abdou Karim Sanneh
Manchester
--- Dave Manneh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> ==========================================
> Seems like old habits die hard, especially when
> it as entrenched as it's in SA's case.
>
> God help the Rainbow nation
>
> Regards
> Manneh
>
> ===========================================
>
> Thursday, 11 April, 2002, 18:24 GMT 19:24 UK
> 'Dr Death' acquitted in South Africa
>
>
> Dr Basson says he was obeying the white regime's
> orders
>
> Dr Wouter Basson, the man who headed South Africa's
> apartheid-era germ warfare
> programme, has been acquitted on charges of murder,
> conspiracy, fraud and drug
> possession.
> "I find the accused not guilty on all the charges,"
> Judge Willie Hartzenberg
> said as the judgment was read out in the courtroom
> in Pretoria.
>
> Dr Basson, dubbed "Dr Death" by the media for his
> alleged attempts to perfect
> killing, showed little reaction, just smiled briefly
> as he was found not guilty
> on 46 charges.
>
> The ruling African National Congress condemned the
> verdict as "outrageously
> bad," said ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama.
>
> "The justice system has let us down on this case,"
> he added, describing the
> verdict as "a clear case of the protection of an
> individual who has killed
> people".
>
> Plans to appeal
>
> Prosecutors have accused Mr Hartzenberg of favouring
> Mr Basson throughout the
> trial, and the government plans to appeal the
> verdict before a panel of judges,
> Sipho Ngwema, a spokesman for the National Director
> of Public Prosecutions
> said.
>
> The court was packed with white supporters of the
> 51-year-old cardiologist and
> they applauded the decision when the decision was
> read out.
>
>
> "They (the prosecutors) had to prove beyond all
> doubt that the accused was
> guilty. That they did not do," Mr Hartzenberg added.
>
> The crowd that came to hear the verdict included
> apartheid-era Defence Minister
> Magnus Malan, former military chief Constand Viljoen
> and former Surgeon-General
> Niel Knobel.
>
> "To come to such a logical conclusion, to me, proves
> that South African courts
> are still good," Mr Viljoen said.
>
> Truth Commission snubbed
>
> In a trial lasting two and a half years, witnesses
> had testified that Project
> Coast, the programme Dr Basson headed, had tried to
> create poisons only lethal
> to blacks.
>
> The doctor had refused to apply for amnesty at the
> Truth and Reconciliation
> Commission (TRC) - a stance seen by civil rights
> groups as proof he is
> unrepentant about his role under the white regime.
>
> "For me the issue is not whether or not somebody
> gets found guilty, the real
> issue is whether or not the person is able to come
> to me and say, 'I did this
> and am very sorry'," said former anti-apartheid
> activist Reverend Frank
> Chikane.
>
> Mr Chikane, now President Thabo Mbeki's chief of
> staff, was nearly killed by
> clothing allegedly poisoned by Project Coast.
>
> Horrific experiments
>
> Witnesses had testified to a catalogue of killing
> methods ranging from the
> grotesque to the horrific:
>
>
> Project Coast sought to create "smart" poisons,
> which would only affect blacks,
> and hoarded enough cholera and anthrax to start
> epidemics.
> Naked black men were tied to trees, smeared with a
> poisonous gel and left
> overnight to see if they would die. When the
> experiment failed, they were put
> to death with injections of muscle relaxants.
> Weapon ideas included sugar laced with salmonella,
> cigarettes with anthrax,
> chocolates with botulism and whisky with herbicide.
> 'Following orders'
>
> Dr Basson said at the trial he had only been
> following orders and portrayed
> himself as a scientist who had sought ways to combat
> potato blight and a
> hepatitis-A epidemic.
>
> Responding to the charge that he had embezzled state
> funds, he said the
> government had practically provided him with a blank
> cheque for his work, which
> took him all over the world for clandestine meetings
> with agents.
>
> He was arrested in 1997 on charges of selling
> ecstasy to a police informant -
> illegal drug production was one arm of Operation
> Coast's operations.
>
> That arrest shed light on the germ warfare unit's
> work and Dr Basson finally
> went on trial in October 1999.
>
>
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