S Africa jails five neo-Nazis

JULIETTE SAUNDERS

Reuter

Johannesburg - Five South African neo-Nazis were each jailed for 26 years yesterday after being convicted of murdering 20 people in a bombing blitz aimed at disrupting South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.

Relatives wept as the judge read out the sentences and were consoled by the Afrikaner Resistance Movement leader, Eugene Terre Blanche.

Mr Terre Blanche, in camouflage uniform, said he did not want to react immediately to the sentencing of the men, members of his white, right- wing movement, but would save his comments for a rally in Pretoria planned for last night.

Judge Monus Flemming delayed sentences against four right-wingers on the run after escaping from prison last month. Five others, convicted of possessing weapons and explosives, were sentenced from three to just over six years.