Apartheid-era police minister due in S.Africa court

PRETORIA, Aug 17 (Reuters) South African protesters demanded justice today ahead of apartheid-era police minister Adriaan Vlok's court appearance on charges of attempting to murder a leading black activist cleric in 1989.

Vlok, his former police chief Johann van der Merwe, and three lower-ranking policemen face charges of attempting to murder anti-apartheid activist Reverend Frank Chikane by poisoning his underwear.

Chikane, now an adviser to President Thabo Mbeki, is attending the trial today.

Protesters outside the court demanded that Vlok be prosecuted for other human rights abuses when he was in charge of police during apartheid, the racially based political system that existed in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.

''We want justice to be done to these guys ... We suffered a lot (and) people were shot and killed by police at that time,'' said Lenni Makhiwame outside the Pretoria High Court.

Makhiwame was one of several protestors holding placards saying ''Apartheid is a crime against humanity'' outside the Pretoria High Court.

Local media reports said Vlok and his four co-accused had agreed a deal with prosecutors under which they will plead guilty in return for suspended sentences, but South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority said this was ''speculation''.

Today's trial is seen as a test case for prosecutions of apartheid-era officials who did not receive amnesty from the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Only a handful of cases have come to trial since 2003, when the TRC - headed by Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu - ended its probe into crimes committed under apartheid.

The commission granted amnesty to those who admitted their crimes. Cases of murder, torture or disappearances in which the accused did not agree to appear before the commission, or where amnesty had not been granted, were meant to go to court if sufficient evidence was found.

Reuters ARB DS1420