Terre'Blanche photographs taken off Facebook

Three photos of AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche’s body posted on social networking site Facebook had been removed by Friday morning.

The creators of the group, “Boere Krisis Aksie” (Boere Crisis Action), were given until midnight on Thursday to remove the pictures, believed to have been taken at the crime scene where Terre’Blanche was hacked to death last April.

Some of the photos had not been presented in court yet, the National Prosecuting Authority’s spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said on Thursday.

Apart from the Terre’Blanche photos, the group has also posted hundreds of other pictures of corpses.

One photo shows the bodies of two men electrocuted while allegedly trying to steal cables. Another shows two burning bodies lying in a street.

A total of 11 626 people have “liked” the Facebook group.

On Thursday, the Terre’Blanche family’s lawyer, Gerrie Basson, said the slain rightwing leader’s family and members of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging were traumatised and disturbed by the photos coming into the public domain.

“We know who the person is that put it up and we are giving him until 12 tonight to remove it,” Basson said on Thursday.

The photos on Facebook showed Terre’Blanche’s body from various angles, lying on a bed with a panga on top of him.

The photos were marked as belonging to a police docket.

If the photos were not taken off, Basson would apply for a court interdict to have them removed, he said. They were apparently posted on Tuesday.

Mhaga said the conduct of the person who posted the photos bordered on contempt of court as the matter was sub judice.

“We are working closely with police to ensure that the matter is investigated for possible action against those responsible,” he said.

“It is clearly defeating the ends of justice as most of the pictures have not yet been presented in court as evidence.”—Sapa