Apartheid police minister gets suspended sentence

PRETORIA, Aug 17 (Reuters) Hardline apartheid-era South African police minister Adriaan Vlok and four others received suspended sentences today after pleading guilty to attempting to murder a leading black activist cleric in 1989.

Vlok and his former police chief Johann van der Merwe were given 10-year prison sentences, suspended for five years, while three lower-ranking policemen were given five-year terms, suspended for four years.

The accused had pleaded guilty to attempting to murder anti-apartheid activist Frank Chikane, now adviser to President Thabo Mbeki, by poisoning his underwear.

The court heard that a plea bargain had been reached.

Vlok last year washed Chikane's feet in an act of contrition -- a hugely symbolic act in a country where many people count themselves as devout Christians.

Protesters outside the court today 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.

REUTERS ARB HS1540