There were emotional scenes in the Pretoria High Court on Thursday when four men were sentenced to effective four and five year jail terms for setting their police dogs on three illegal immigrants in a 1998 "training exercise".
Relatives of the four men reacted with shock to the sentences, with one woman screaming: "They are crazy." Some broke down in tears.
The four men, who have shown little emotion during the course of the trial, were clearly apprehensive as the sentences were read out.
Judge Willie van der Merwe described their crimes as callous, cowardly, brutal and cruel.
"They completely disregarded the humanity of the three victims," he said.
Jacobus Petrus Smith, convicted on three counts of assault with the intent to commit grievous bodily harm, was sentenced to seven years in jail. Of these, two years were suspended for five years on the condition that he was not convicted for another violent crime during the period.
Van der Merwe found that he had played a leading role in the assaults, and should therefore receive a harsher punishment.
Lodewyk Christiaan Koch, Robert Benjamin Henzen and Eugene Werner Truter each received a six-year prison term on the assault charges, of which two years were suspended on the same conditions.
Henzen and Truter were furthermore each sentenced to an additional year in jail on a charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice for making a false entry into a police register. This sentence is to serve concurrently with the other four years.
Smith was freed on R2 000 bail pending an application for leave to appeal which is to be heard in the same court on Wednesday next week. The other three will not appeal.
The four - along with Dino Guiotto and Nicolaas Kenneth Loubser - were arrested a year ago, shortly before the SABC screened a video showing them inciting their
police dogs to bite three illegal Mozambican immigrants near Benoni on January 3, 1998.
The victims were Gabriel Pedro Timane, Alexandre Pedro Timane and Sylvester Cose.
The six were at the time members of the police's North-East Rand dog unit. Smith, Koch, Henzen and Truter claimed their actions were part of an exercise to
teach Guiotto's dog to bite on command. Such sessions were not uncommon, they said, and have been ongoing for years.
Guiotto and Loubser have denied guilt on all the charges against them. Their trial is to proceed separately next year.
Passing sentence, van der Merwe described the crimes as shocking and worthy of the public's indignation.
The men's actions were cowardly, they abused their authority, and apparently regarded the incident as a joke. This could be derived from the fact that they were seen laughing on the video.
The men showed no remorse up to the point of their arrest, and caused great damage to the image of the South African Police Service.
If it was truly their intention to train their dogs, one could not explain why they continued hitting and kicking the men after the so-called practice session had come to an end.
While the three Mozambicans did not suffer serious bodily injuries, the emotional scars were probably much
worse, the judge said.
They were attacked one at a time. Having to watch their friends being attacked - screaming and pleading - while knowing their turn was to come, must have had been very traumatic.
The duration of the attacks, about an hour, was also an aggravating factor.
Van der Merwe rejected evidence by defence witnesses that house arrest would be an appropriate sentence.
"The seriousness of the crimes is of such that correctional supervision would not be appropriate. Should such a sentence be imposed, it would send the wrong message to the community and to would-be criminals."
If it was true that such "practice sessions" were common, this did not lessen the seriousness of the men's crimes, van der Merwe said.
"Everyone is in agreement that if such a practice truly exists, it is a shocking fact, and it is to be hoped that it has ceased," he said.
"This does not, however, take away from the fact that members of the police apparently failed in their duties by not bringing the practice to light. This is an unacceptable
practice which should never have raised its head, and
should have been eradicated right from the start."
In mitigation, the judge found the four men were
clearly good and dedicated policemen, who often worked in dangerous conditions.
One should also take into account that the so-called
practice sessions were not their own brainchild, but
something they were taught.
He also accepted as a mitigating factor the fact that
they had taken the victims to hospital, and had shown
remorse after their arrests.
They would never be able to pursue their careers
again, and have suffered financial losses as a result of being suspended from the police.
Van der Merwe said the men have been publicly reviled for the past year without having been able to tell their side of the story.
The most important factor in their favour, was the fact
that they were good human material who could become
valuable members of society with some guidance, the judge said.
Relatives of the four men declined to comment.
The three victims were not allowed to speak to the media as they were in a witness protection programme, but expressed their satisfaction through a lawyer who is to lodge a civil claim on their behalf.
"The message to me was that they feel justice has
been done," Jose Nascimento told reporters.
He said the three men would sue the Minister of Safety and Security as well as the six policemen for damages.
"They have been traumatised for life. They will never
be able to see a dog and a policeman again without it
having some sort of psychological impact on them." - Sapa