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Vlok to be prosecuted
16/07/2007 21:11 - (SA)
Pretoria - National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi says apartheid-era police minister Adriaan Vlok and ex-police chief Johann van der Merwe will be charged with attempted murder next month.
He said papers had been filed with the Pretoria High Court and the case would be heard on August 17.
The charges related to an alleged plot to kill Frank Chikane, at present director-general of the presidency.
Chikane was secretary-general of the SA Council of Churches when his underwear was lined with a poison that attacked his nervous system in 1989.
Vlok and Van der Merwe were meant to stand trial in the Pretoria High Court in 2004 after failing to apply for amnesty at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but the NPA reversed its decision to prosecute them.
Vlok asked Chikane's forgiveness and washed his feet in September last year.
Chikane has repeatedly asked others to come forward and reveal what happened in 1989, but has never called for prosecution.
Commenting on the decision, former president FW de Klerk said he had no further information regarding NPA's reasons for its decision, or the views of Vlok and Van der Merwe.
He accordingly did not want to make any further comment at this stage, except to say that he would monitor the situation closely and would comment more fully if and when this might be necessary.
However, he repeated his view that any prosecutions related to the conflict of the past should be approached with the greatest sensitivity and circumspection because of the negative consequences that unbalanced action might hold for national reconciliation.
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