logo
episode-header-image
May 2021
9 m

The trial of South Africa’s 'Dr Death'

Bbc World Service
About this episode

The trial of a South African doctor accused of multiple murders under the Apartheid regime. Wouter Basson, nicknamed 'Dr Death' by the country’s media, was alleged to have run a secret chemical and biological weapons project in the 1980s to eliminate perceived enemies of the government. But after the country’s longest and most expensive trial and despite evidence from 150 witnesses, in 2002 a judge found him not guilty on all 46 charges. Bob Howard talks to Dr Marjorie Jobson, the national director of Khulumani, a group which campaigns for justice on behalf of the victims of apartheid.

Up next
Today
The creation of the International Criminal Court
In 1998, at a conference organised by the United Nations, a blueprint was devised for what would be the world's first permanent International Criminal Court.Judge Phillipe Kirsch chaired the Rome conference that led to the formation of the court. He tells Gill Kearsley about the ... Show More
10m 23s
Aug 22
Geneva Conventions
In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the Battle of Solferino, in Italy. He couldn’t believe the lack of aid for the wounded soldiers and came up with two ideas – a voluntary aid organisation and an international treaty to protect those injured in wartime. They went o ... Show More
10m 2s
Aug 21
The rise and fall of BlackBerry
In the early 2000s, BlackBerry was the phone that ruled the world. But within a decade, it collapsed, overtaken by the touch screen revolution.Sam Gruet speaks to former co-CEO Jim Balsillie about BlackBerry’s meteoric rise, its battle against Apple, and the moment he knew it was ... Show More
9m 50s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2023
The Assassination that Ended South African Apartheid
The assassination of Chris Hani was a pivotal moment in the dismantling of South African apartheid. On the 10th of April, 1993, he was shot dead as he returned to his home in a quiet suburb of Johannesburg. Negotiations between Nelson Mandela's party and the ruling apartheid gove ... Show More
28 m
Oct 2013
The Death of Steve Biko
The anti-Apartheid activist Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, died in a police cell in 1977. The South African police claimed he'd gone on hunger strike and had starved himself to death, but he had only been in prison a matter of days. Helen ... Show More
8m 59s
Nov 2014
The Nuremberg Trials
In November 1945 the first major war crimes trials in history opened in the German city of Nuremberg. Witness talks to the only surviving American prosecutor at the trials, Benjamin Ferencz, who helped unearth evidence of mass murder by the Nazi mobile death squads and prosecuted ... Show More
9m 12s
Sep 2023
Following the trial of accused killer of Muslim family
It’s been just over two years since four members of the Afzaal family were killed after a truck drove into them on a summer evening in London, Ontario. Now, 22-year-old Nathaniel Veltman is on trial for four counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and terrori ... Show More
23m 2s
Apr 2024
Thirty years since the first free elections in South Africa
It’s been thirty years since the first fully democratic elections in South Africa, which saw the African National Congress take power in 1994.But two years before that historic moment, white South Africans had to vote in a referendum that would decide whether or not to usher in a ... Show More
51m 2s
Jan 2020
The Murder Trial of OJ Simpson - 25 Years Later
The OJ Simpson murder trial is arguably one of the most intriguing cases in modern criminal history. Over 25 years later, and no one’s really sure exactly what happened to OJ’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman on the night of June 12, 1994. OJ Simpson was ... Show More
1h 10m
Apr 2021
The Weight of Bearing Witness
It’s the second week of the trial of former Minneapolis police officerDerek Chauvin, and witnesses of all ages have been asked to recount what they saw on May 25th, 2020, as Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes. Emotions in the courtroom have run high as ... Show More
31m 4s