WEDNESDAY, 3.30PM
A POLICE general has agreed to testify at the amnesty hearing of confessed police torturer Captain Jeff Benzien to confirm that “unconventional interrogation methods” were authorised at the highest level during the apartheid conflict.
Benzien’s lawyer, Gustav Cook, made the announcement on Wednesday shortly before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee adjourned the policeman’s hearing to October 20. Benzien is seeking amnesty for the death of Umkhonto we Sizwe guerrilla Ashley Kriel and the torture of leading African National Congress activists including ANC MP Tony Yengeni and SA Police Service VIP protection unit head Gary Kruser.
Cook told the committee, chaired by Judge Hassen Mall, that his client had been “left out on a limb” by his former superiors. “It is only fair that senior officers should realise the consequences of their actions and come forward to admit these.” Cook said he spoke to a police general who agreed to testify at Benzien’s hearing.
“The general is prepared to come foward and to admit that there was a chain of command which came from the top and that unconventional methods could be used and were authorised.” Cook declined to name the general.
Meanwhile, victims of Benzien’s torture on Tuesday accused him of failing to tell all. They recounted incidents to the Truth Commision in which Benzien used electric shock torture, hung detainees by their handcuffs from iron grilles, and denied them medical treatment. Benzien, who astonished the commission the previous day with a graphic description of his torture methods, said he could not be expected to remember all the details of particular assaults.