South African white extremists jailed for up to 35 years over Mandela assassination plot

Five leaders of a "Boer Army" white supremacist plot in South Africa to assassinate Nelson Mandela and drive blacks out of the country were sentenced to 35 years in prison yesterday after a trial lasting more than 10 years.

A Pretoria high court also handed down sentences ranging from five to 20 years to some of the 21 defendants of the "Boeremag", a rag-tag militia of apartheid loyalists accused of a botched 2002 coup attempt in Africa's biggest economy.

Some of the sentences were suspended. Nine of the accused walked free after being held for 11 years behind bars during the trial, National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Medupi Simasiku said.

In the course of the prolonged case, witnesses testified that the Boeremag planned to assassinate anti-apartheid hero Mandela, who was South Africa's first black president, by planting a bomb along a route he was due to travel.

Their plans however were thwarted when the world- famous statesman, now aged 95 and convalescing at home in Johannesburg, travelled to his engagement by helicopter.

Several of the Boeremag members were charged with causing nine explosions at various sites in Gauteng, South Africa's richest province in October 2002, with most blasts taking place in the sprawling township of Soweto, south of Johannesburg, where one woman was killed.