A South African court today released one of two black workers facing charges of killing white separatist Eugene Terre'blanche on 5,000 rand ($663) bail, saying it did not see him as a flight risk.
Chris Mahlangu (28), a gardener at Terre'blanche's farm, and a 15-year-old - not identified for legal reasons - were charged with the April murder that highlighted continuing racial tensions 16 years after the end of the apartheid system that Terre'blanche had fought to preserve.
A magistrate court ruled Mr Mahlangu had co-operated with police and saw no likelihood that he would avoid trial, the South African Press Association reported.
"Naturally we are disappointed with the ruling but we respect it," Mthunzi Mhaga, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, told Reuters. The 15-year-old accused of killing Terre'blanche has been declared fit to stand trial and did not apply for bail.
The leader of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) – the fringe right-wing white separatist party – was a prominent figure during the dying years of apartheid but then lived in relative obscurity, particularly since his release in 2004 after serving a prison sentence for beating a black man nearly to death.
Terre'blanche was hacked to death, and two black workers from his farm were charged with the killing that many at first worried could have sparked racial violence.
Police said the motive for the crime was likely unpaid wages rather than anything political. The case served as a reminder of the bitter country's divisions but did little to fan the flames of racial strife in the country now dubbed the "Rainbow Nation".
Reuters