Former apartheid President P.W. Botha talks to the media at the George Magistrate court where he was fined and given a suspended one year jail sentence for refusing to testify to the TRC.
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Former State President P.W. Botha appeared in court for refusing to testify at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The former South African State President appeared at a court in George. Botha's case was postponed for a later date to allow the lawyers to study the documents, which were handed over by the TRC. The documents contained details of his involvement in the gruesome apartheid killings of black freedom fighters allegedly arranged by the apartheid regime.
Botha was asked to testify after it was found by the TRC that he had ordered the bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. He was fined and given a suspended sentence for refusing to testify. He appealed his sentence and won when the court found that the notice he was served with to appear before the TRC had been technically invalid. Botha is reported to have declared that he would not ask for forgiveness for fighting the Marxist revolutionary onslaught.