/ 27 July 1998

High Court trial scrapped to await TRC outcome

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 7.30PM.

THE trial of Brigadier Jack Cronje and Captain Jacques Hechter was provisionally removed from the roll of the Pretoria High Court pending the outcome of an amnesty application before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The former security policemen are part of a group of five who gave evidence before the TRC’s amnesty committee in conection with the murders of the Pebco Three, Mamelodi doctor Fabian Ribeiro and KwaNdebele cabinet minister Piet Ntuli.

Cronje was the commander of the notorious Vlakplaas counter-insurgency unit near Pretoria between 1983 and 1985, before handing over to convicted killer Eugene de Kock.