/ 28 March 1999

STUNTMAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY

NEVILLE VAN DER MERWE, the South African body builder and stuntman accused of kidnapping and murdering a British accountant in 1991, pleaded not guilty to the charges in the Maidstone Crown Court in Britain on Thursday. Van der Merwe (28) was allegedly sent to Britain with an accomplice, Glen Chait, to kill Simon Law, an accountant with connections to a South African businessman. Law’s body was never found but traces of his blood were found in the boot of a car. Van der Merwe eluded police for eight years before he was arrested in Los Angeles in September. Chait committed suicide in police custody in 1996. The trial is set to begin on October 4.

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