Attempted Murder -- By Underwear
Over the years, countries have devised some ingenious schemes to try to kill their political opponents. The United States wanted to kill Fidel Castro with exploding cigars (to name just one wacky strategy). Old Soviet-era Eastern Bloc countries used poison-tipped umbrellas. A former Russian spy has been accused recently of putting radioactive material in tea.
Now comes the news that South African police authorities used underwear laced with nerve agent in an attempt to kill a prominent anti-apartheid activist in the late 1980s. South Africa's former law and order minister, Adriaan Vlok, received a suspended 10-year sentence in the case today.
Vlok, the only senior politician in the former white regime to be convicted of apartheid-era crimes, and four other high-ranking policemen had pleaded guilty. They attempted to murder the Rev. Frank Chikane in 1989 by putting the poisoned underwear in his suitcase while he was traveling.
(As part of their plea bargains, the men agreed to testify against any others brought to trial for crimes from that era. There is an ongoing debate in South Africa about these trials and whether they help or hurt the country.)
Vlok, who became a born-again Christian, had already asked Chikane for forgiveness. For his part, Chikane, now the director of President Thabo Mbeki's office, said he had forgiven the men who had tried to kill him.
3:09 PM ET | 08-17-2007 | permalink
