ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 27, 1996 TAG: 9608270099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
Death squad officer convicted of murder
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - A former police officer who headed apartheid's most notorious death squad - a state-sanctioned unit that carried out grisly bombings, assassinations and other atrocities - was convicted Monday of five counts of murder.
Former police Col. Eugene de Kock, 48, a key figure in the ``dirty war'' waged by the white minority regime against black liberation forces, is the first senior security officer to be convicted of apartheid-related offenses since the nation's founding democratic elections in April 1994.
Magnus Malan, the apartheid-era defense minister, and 10 other former top military and intelligence officials are on trial in a separate murder case in Durban. The group is charged with masterminding a hit-squad massacre of 13 people, mostly women and children, nine years ago.
De Kock, known to his former colleagues as ``Prime Evil,'' still faces verdicts on 116 other charges, including three more killings, kidnapping, assault, illegal weapon possession and dozens of counts of fraud.
- Los Angeles Times
U.S. financier Vesco sentenced in Cuba
MEXICO CITY - A Cuban court convicted fugitive American financier Robert Vesco of economic crimes against the state Monday and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.
The verdict and sentence were announced in the state-run Prensa Latina news agency, monitored in Mexico City.
Vesco's Cuban wife, Lidia Alfonsa Llauger, was convicted of lesser charges in the case and sentenced to nine years, the Cuban news agency said.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB