Apartheid-era minister guilty in poison plot

PRETORIA, South Africa (Reuters) -- South African hardline apartheid-era police minister Adriaan Vlok and four police officers received suspended sentences on Friday after pleading guilty to attempting to murder a leading black activist in 1989.

Adriaan Vlok admitted attempting to murder a leading black activist cleric.

Vlok and his former police chief Johann van der Merwe were given 10-year prison sentences, suspended for five years, in a case that has rekindled debate about justice and retribution in a country still dealing with the scars of white rule.

They will not serve any time in prison.

Prosecutor Anton Ackermann said the case, 13 years after apartheid fell, was not driven by revenge and said that was reflected by the sentences, handed down after Vlok and the other defendants struck a plea bargain.

"This is not a Nuremberg trial," he said referring to the trial of Nazi war criminals. "This case is not about retribution, even less has this case been motivated by revenge." Three lower-ranking policemen were given five-year terms, suspended for four years.

The accused pleaded guilty to attempting to murder anti-apartheid activist and cleric Frank Chikane, now adviser to President Thabo Mbeki, by lacing his underwear with poison. The poison attacked his nervous system, making him violently ill.

Ackermann told the court a plea bargain had been reached under which charges of conspiracy to murder were withdrawn.

Vlok last year washed Chikane's feet in an act of contrition -- a hugely symbolic act in a country where many people count themselves as devout Christians, and where the wounds of the recent past remain raw.

Wielding placards reading "Apartheid is a crime against humanity", protesters outside the Pretoria High Court demanded Vlok be prosecuted for other abuses when he was in charge of police during apartheid.

"We want justice to be done to these guys ... We suffered a lot (and) people were shot and killed by police at that time," protester Lenni Makhiwame said ahead of the sentencing.

But Chikane, who attended the court hearing, said he hoped the case would help South Africa with reconciliation, rather than reopen old wounds.

"I'm pleased this thing is over and we can move forward and whatever happened today will be used to resolve all the outstanding issues," Chikane told reporters outside the court.

Friday's trial was widely seen as a test case for the prosecution of apartheid-era officials who were not granted an amnesty by the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Only a handful of cases have come to trial since 2003, when the TRC -- headed by Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu -- ended its probe into crimes committed under apartheid.

Vlok was the only apartheid-era minister to apply to the TRC for an amnesty and was pardoned for a series of bombings.

The commission granted an amnesty to those who admitted their crimes. Cases of murder, torture or disappearances in which the accused did not agree to appear before the commission, or where an amnesty was not granted, were meant to go to court if sufficient evidence was found. E-mail to a friend

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