DHAKA: A South African court began sentencing Monday 20 right-wing extremists convicted of high treason for a plot to kill apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and drive blacks out of the country.

The Boeremag organisation had planned a right-wing coup in 2002 to overthrow the post-apartheid government.

The trial lasted almost a decade until the organisation`s members were convicted in August last year, the first guilty verdicts for treason since the end of apartheid in 1994.

‘The accused had aimed to overthrow the government through unconstitutional methods that included violence,’ said High Court judge Eben Jordaan as he began the two-day sentencing hearing, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1632 HRS, OCT 28, 2013
RoR/SRS