A white supremacist mass murderer who is appealing his death sentence got “sieg heils” and Hitlerstyle salutes from about 25 Afrikaner neo-Nazis, who demonstrated in the heart of the South African capital Wednesday in support of his clemency appeal.
The object of their adulation is Barend Strydom, who shot to death seven blacks and wounded 16 other passers-by on Nov. 15, 1988, in the square where the anniversary rally was held.
The police seemed confused. Although they declared the demonstration illegal, they backed off when the demonstrators began singing hymns.
The rally was finally broken up after someone displayed in public for the first time the emblem of the Afrikaans Fascist Movement.
Strydom, an ex-policeman, is the self-styled leader of an extreme right-wing group that calls itself “White Wolves.”
He told the court which sentenced him to death that he would not hesitate to repeat the shooting spree.
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