/ 14 December 2001

MEN GUILTY IN BASHING CASE

THREE white youngsters and ex-policeman, Eben Kruger, will be sentenced in the so-called ”Parys bashing case” on Thursday, SABC television news reported on Wednesday. The four were found guilty on Wednesday of killing two black people in what was believed to have been a racially motivated killing in Parys, in the northern Free State, in October 1999. Andries Songelwa and Sam Lebatla were killed by the four after a heavy drinking spree. The court found three of them guilty on two counts of murder and the policeman guilty on one count of murder. The court found that it had been proved beyond reasonable doubt that the youths had intentionally hunted down the victims to assault them. – Sapa