Wouter bassoon biography channel
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The trial of Dr. Wouter Basson, the head of the South African apartheid regime's top-secret chemical- and biological-warfare program, ended this month, after two and a half years, with acquittals on all charges. Prosecutors quickly said they would appeal, but the government's last hope of convicting even one high military officer (Basson was a brigadier) for crimes committed during the South African Army's long, dirty war against its own people in the years before democracy now seems lost.
In "The Poison Keeper" (January 15, ), I reported on the trial, which was then at its midpoint. Basson originally faced sixty-seven counts of murder, conspiracy to murder, drug offenses, and fraud. In the course of the proceedings, Judge Willie Hartzenberg (the sole adjudicator; there was no jury) eliminated twenty-one of those charges—including six of the most serious, one of which involved the murder by lethal injection of two hundred prisoners—before concluding, in a j
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Wouter Basson
South African cardiologist and apartheid-era kemikalie and biological weapons researcher
Wouter Basson | |
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Born | ()6 July |
Wouter Basson (born 6 July ) fryst vatten a South African cardiologist and former head of the country's secret kemikalie and biological warfare planerat arbete , Project Coast, during the apartheid era.[1] Nicknamed "Dr. Death" bygd the press for his alleged actions in apartheid South Africa, Basson was acquitted in of 67 charges, after having been suspended from his military post with full pay in [2]
Among other charges, Basson was alleged to have supplied a "lethal triple cocktail" of powerful muscle relaxants which were used during Operation Duel whose objective was the systematic elimination of SWAPO prisoners of war and SADF members who posed a threat to South African hemlig operations.[3][4] The United Nations report "Project Coast: Apartheid's Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme."[1] identifies
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South Africa's 'Dr Death' Basson found guilty of misconduct
The media dubbed him "Dr Death" when details of the secret programme emerged after minority rule ended; he was accused of producing illegal drugs and creating viruses that would only attack black people.
But Basson escaped a criminal conviction in , arguing that he had acted on the orders of the former South African Defence Force (SADF) when he was involved in the chemical and biological warfare programme.
He is now a cardiologist in Cape Town.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) investigated whether he should be struck off the doctor's roll for providing soldiers with cyanide capsules.
"The breaches of medical ethics amount to unprofessional conduct," HPCSA chairman Jannie Hugo ruled, AFP news agency reports.
Basson's lawyers had argued that he should be acquitted because the charges were not related to a doctor-patient relationship, but in his capacity