Six co-defendants were acquitted Thursday in the murder trial against South Africa's former defense minister, increasing the chances that he will go free in the biggest political trial of the post-apartheid era.
Magnus Malan is the highest ranking apartheid-era official to face criminal charges linked to efforts by the former white government to fight the opposition, particularly members of the African National Congress party.Malan and his 15 co-defendants faced charges including murder and conspiracy linked to 13 slayings in the KwaMakutha black township south of Durban.
The judge, Jan Hugo, criticized two key state witnesses as weak and unreliable during the initial reading of the verdict Thursday and said the 1987 killings Malan and others were accused of planning lacked any official connection to the military.
Hugo then acquitted the first six defendants, all of them Zulu nationalists of the ANC's rival Inkatha Freedom Party who received special military training in the 1980s.
Cheers and clapping erupted from Inkatha officials in the public gallery when Hugo said: "Accused 1 through 6 have not been proven guilty of any of the offenses charged and they are acquitted."
Hugo also absolved Inkatha official M.Z. Khumalo of any blame in the township massacre, but Thursday's session ended before he completed his ruling on remaining charges against Khumalo and the other nine defendants, including Malan. The rest of the verdict will be read Friday.
But Hugo's review of evidence from two witnesses who testified with immunity from prosecution questioned the basis of the state's case - that Malan and top military leaders set up and trained a Zulu nationalist hit squad to eliminate government enemies.
"This was not an officially planned or authorized military exercise," Hugo said of the attack on a house in KwaMakutha.
Malan, the steel-willed military leader who guided the "total onslaught" campaign against anti-apartheid groups in South Africa and neighboring states, has insisted he is innocent.
His co-defendants include former military chief Kat Liebenberg and former army chief Jannie Geldenhuys.
If Malan and other former military leaders are acquitted, many blacks will say the judicial system failed and that apartheid criminals were freed unfairly.