CAPE TOWN July 16 1997 - SAPA

TORTURER COP CONCEALING EVIDENCE, TRUTH COMMISSION TOLD

The sisters of slain Umkhonto we Sizwe guerilla Ashley Kriel on Wednesday challenged the evidence given by his killer, police captain Jeffrey Benzien, to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's amnesty committee.

Michel Assure and Melanie Adams told the committee they did not believe that Benzien had made a full disclosure, a key requirement for the granting of amnesty.

Benzien is seeking amnesty for Kriel's death, but insists the shot that killed the activist was fired accidentally during a struggle.

An inquest court accepted the policeman's version of events, ruling that no-one was criminally liable for Kriel's death.

Assure said she was "bitterly disappointed" by Benzien's testimony to the amnesty committee.

Testifying earlier this week, Benzien said Kriel was shot outside a house in Athlone, Cape Town, in July 1987.

He denied knowledge of bloodstains in the kitchen and a trail of blood leading to the bathroom.

Assure said she saw the bloodstains when she went to the house the day after the shooting to collect her brother's belongings. She said she found bloody clothes in a laundry basket in the bathroom.

"From what I saw on the premises, I have reason to believe that some information is still being withheld from the family.

"We came here with the hope that we were going to hear the truth as to what happened that day and we are still in the dark. My mother died two years ago without knowing the truth."

Benzien's lawyer, Gustav Cook, asked why Assure's testimony about the bloodstains was not included in the statement she made to her lawyers.

She said: "I did mention it to the legal representatives. They might have been at fault... in not putting it in the statement."


© South African Press Association, 1997
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