THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee on Tuesday granted amnesty to apartheid-era spy Dieter Gerhardt. Gerhardt (64), a former commander of Simon’s Town naval base, was sentenced in the Cape Town High Court in 1983 to life imprisonment for spying for the former Soviet Union. He was released in 1992 as a political prisoner following a trade-off between the National Party government and the African National Congress. He left the country for Switzerland after his release.