'No Nuremberg trials for SA'

2007-08-03 08:27

Jan-Jan Joubert and Liezel de Lange

Pretoria - The director-general of the presidency, Frank Chikane, says he doesn't expect former president FW de Klerk will be charged with any crimes arising from the previous government dispensation.

"I don't know of anyone who's planning to charge De Klerk," Chikane said. He added that it didn't appear as if evidence had emerged that De Klerk had given orders to conduct human rights violations.

Chikane told representatives of the Afrikaans media during a meeting at the Union Building on Thursday that it would serve no purpose to send Adriaan Vlok to jail.

He repeatedly stressed the importance of protecting the legal process to ensure that it was free of political interference.

Chikane intimated that the government was concerned at the highest level about the growing unease regarding TRC-related prosecutions.

"Everyone in government is strongly opposed to Nuremberg-style hearings," he assured the group.

At the same time, Chikane strongly emphasised that his own preferences or that of the government concerning who was to be prosecuted or not, could not determine the outcome (of the process) because the independence of the National Prosecuting Authority and the judiciary were entrenched in the Constitution.

- Beeld