English/Nat
Four South African men convicted in the stoning and fatal stabbing of U-S student Amy Biehl won amnesties and walked free from jail on Tuesday.
Amy Biehl was beaten and stabbed to death on the streets of Cape Town's black suburb of Guguletu in 1993.
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission declared that the crime was political and the killers had told the full truth - the two criteria needed for amnesties.
Mongezi Manqina was one of four men convicted and imprisoned here in October 1994 for the brutal murder of 26-year old Amy Biehl.
The four black youths, all members of the Pan Africanist Congress, were each sentenced to 18 years in jail.
Manqina was on Tuesday released from Brandblei prison in Worcester, 85 miles northeast of Cape Town.
He was reunited with his mother Evelyn Manqina and other relatives as he left the prison.
Amy Biehl, a Fulbright scholar, was killed whilst helping with voter education in Cape Town ahead of the first democratic elections here.
She died in the Guguletu black township outside Cape Town when a crowd of blacks stoned her car, then beat and stabbed her.
The killing drew international attention to South Africa's racial violence.
But last year Amy's parents, Peter and Linda Biehl, said they would not oppose Manqina's application to be freed from jail.
And on Tuesday, South Africa's Truth Commission granted the four men amnesty.
It found that they had all given a full disclosure of the events and that the murder had been committed for political reasons.
Manqina said he was happy to be free and sorry for his crime.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I want to say to the Biehls thanks for getting me out of the prison because without their comments I think I'd be inside now and I'm outside today and I want to say I'm sorry what I've done to their daughter and I know how much they feel for their daughter . They are proud. That's why I'm saying I'm so sorry what I've done to their daughter."
SUPER CAPTION: Manqina
Amy's parents made headlines for the way they responded to their daughter's killers.
Instead of being bitter, they have sought to forgive their daughter's killers.
Last year they met Manqina's mother at her home - 200 metres from where Amy was killed.
Their arrival at the simple concrete township home was filled with emotion, and for Evelyn Manqina the meeting proved too much - her embrace and tears speaking volumes.
In July 1997 Amy's killers asked her family for forgiveness.
For the first time, the four men admitted they were part of the mob who attacked her.
Amy's parents attended the hearing at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Manqina's mother said on Tuesday it was hard to feel happy with the knowledge that the Biehls would never again see their daughter.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Because once I've said I'm going to get my son back but they are
not going to see their child. That is my main worry because they
still have a room for their child. How can you be happy like that?
You can't never be happy because there is a question mark.
SUPER CAPTION: Evelyn Manqina, mother
Peter and Linda Biehl, in a statement today from their home in Newport Beach, California, supported the Commission's amnesty decision.
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