PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) -- A former special forces officer on Monday described an apartheid-era plot to test poisoned beer on a dozen unsuspecting taxi drivers before using it to kill the government's "enemies."
Johan Theron was testifying in the murder, conspiracy and fraud trial of Dr. Wouter Basson, who ran apartheid South Africa's chemical and biological weapons program.Basson has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Theron, who testified last week to killing hundreds of black prisoners and tossing their corpses from an airplane, told the Pretoria High Court on Monday that Basson instructed him to take 12 quarts of poisoned beer from Pretoria to the Eastern Cape hundreds of miles away to test it on 12 taxi drivers.
However, Theron's contact on the Eastern Cape, Danie Faul, did not show up to collect the beer, and Theron poured it out, Theron said, according to the South African Press Association.
Faul, who had also been a special forces officer, testified later Monday to helping kill colleagues who were considered security risks.
Faul, who worked for Theron, said he had poisoned Victor de Fonseca's tea, and when that didn't work -- his orange juice.
De Fonseca was considered a security risk after he developed brain cancer and began boasting publicly about his deeds in the outfit.
In 1983, Faul and a colleague gave another special forces members considered a security risk a beer spiked with a sedative, and then Faul injected him with an anesthetic that killed him, according to SAPA.
Faul said he also threw the body of another special task force member considered a security risk into the sea from an aircraft in August 1986.
Faul also testified to helping Theron kill three black prisoners with injections, according to SAPA.