Amy Biehl's killers jailed for 18 years

Cape Town - Three black youths were jailed for 18 years each for what the judge termed the racially motivated, 'cold blooded and brutal' murder of a white American student, Amy Biehl.

The prosecution had sought death sentences for Mongesi Manqina, 22, Mzikhona 'Easy' Nofemela, 19, and Vusumzi Ntamo, 23, convicted on Tuesday of killing Biehl in Cape Town's black township of Guguletu in August last year.

Biehl 'was an active supporter of the cause of the disadvantaged', Judge Gerald Friedman said. The killing was carried out 'by a mob on a defenceless 26-year-old girl who was already seriously injured'. She was murdered the day before she was due to leave South Africa, after spending 10 months there. Reuter