South African court jails ex-cop for apartheid murder

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JOHANNESBURG - A South African court Thursday served a 15-year jail sentence on an ex-policeman for the 1987 murder of a young anti-apartheid activist in a rare conviction for such crimes.

In 2019, Johan Marais admitted killing Caiphus Nyoka, a member of the Congress of South African Students, in a township east of Johannesburg.

High Court judge Papi Mosopa said Marais, lacked genuine remorse and ruled the 66-year-old be jailed for 15 years as "retribution".

More than a dozen people wearing T-shirts bearing Nyoka's image burst into anti-apartheid songs in court after the verdict was read out.

The National Prosecuting Authority hailed it as "ensuring accountability for atrocious crimes" referred to it by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up in 1996 to process crimes committed under apartheid.

The TRC heard about 7,000 applications for amnesty from perpetrators of gross human rights violations from 1960 to 1994, the year white-minority rule ended. But only a handful were prosecuted.

Nyoka was sleeping with three friends when officers raided his home and shot him nine times, it said. He died from multiple gunshot wounds.

"This sentence is therefore significant and impactful, not only for the state and society, but most importantly for the victims' families to finally find closure," the NPA said in a statement.