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War hero: I was a mercenary
13/02/2004 17:12 - (SA)
Swellendam - A highly decorated South African former air force officer Friday admitted to involvement in "mercenary activities" in Ivory Coast's civil war which sliced the west African nation in two.
Carl Alberts, who was awarded the Honoris Crux, apartheid South Africa's highest honour for bravery for his role in the Angolan war, told a magistrate's court in the southwestern town of Swellendam that he was guilty of the charge brought against him, the SAPA news agency reported.
Alberts was sentenced to two years in prison, or a R20 000 ($3 000) fine. Half the sentence was suspended.
The 49-year-old pilot was freed after paying R10 000.
Makhosini Nkosi, a spokesperson for South Africa's Scorpions investigating unit, said the the plea and fine were part of a bargain agreed by Alberts and Scorpions prosecutors.
Alberts was charged with contravening the 1998 Foreign Military Assistance Act which makes it an offence for South Africans to fight as mercenaries.
The first person to be arrested under the Foreign Military Assistance Act was French-born Francois Richard Rouget, who had recruited South Africans to fight as mercenaries in Africa.
Rouget was sentenced to five years in prison or a R100 000 (US$13 300) fine in August last year after pleading guilty to involvement in mercenary activities in Ivory Coast.
"I acted only out of friendship with the Ivory Coast government... I still do not believe it was a crime as I acted at the request of a legitimate government," Rouget told a newspaper then.
Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo has promised former colonial ruler France - which has deployed a peacekeeping force to act as a buffer between the government forces and rebels and to monitor a ceasefire - that he would order out foreign mercenaries.
- AFP
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