SADISTIC COPS SENTENCED IN SOUTH AFRICA
As a departure fromthe rule in South Africa, a court decided. to punish. four white policemen and a court clerk for torturing two Africans, one of whom died, in a police station in Bloemfontein last December. The two- prisoners were trussed, handcuffed, and plastic bags were put over their heads,
Evidence was given that Izak Mogaise died after being punched, slapped, whipped, dropped ¢ on a cement floor, given electric shocks and suffocated, 7
Constable Jacob Maree admitted hitting the Africans and applying electric shocks to Makhetal, who was on the floor, his handcuffed hands over his knees and a broomstick forced between his arms and the back of his knees, Maree said he whipped the helpless prisoner with a sjambok [leather whip];
One of the policemen, Gert Coetzee, told Justice Smit that he doubted whether there was a single police, station in all of South Africa that did not use the same method in seeking "evidence," Ho said he learned to use plastic bags at the police station.
Mogaise and his friend Philemon Makhetla were being questioned in a routine case involving the theft.of £6/15s. [$19] from a restaurant whore they worked, [See World Outlook April 3, ]-
The sentences were ‘passed April ll. Gert Coetzee, found guilty of assault, was sentenced to seven years and six strokes, Constable Jacob Maree, found guilty of homicide and assault, was sentenced to nine years and six strokes. Constable Johannes van Wyk, found guilty of culpable homicide and assault, was sentenced to six years and six strokes, His term was suspended for three years, Court clerk Johan nes de Bruin, found guilty of assault, received three years and six strokes. Warrant Officer Gert Roussouw, guilty of defeating the ends of justice, was sentenced to four years,
The judge said he thought the case was "a terrible slur on South African law and the police,"
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