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ZIMBABWE:
Mugabe releases apartheid spies
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Michael Smith was one of the three released Zimbabwean authorities have released three longterm prisoners convicted of murder and spying for South Africa during the apartheid
era.
The Zimbabwean government said it was freeing the men - Kevin Woods, Michael Smith and Philip Conjwayo - on humanitarian grounds.
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They were jailed in 1988 over a car bombing targeting members of the African National Congress (ANC).
The trio were sentenced to death for the murder of a driver in the bombing. It was later commuted to life in prison.
'Medical grounds'
A Zimbabwe Prison Service spokeswoman said President Robert Mugabe had "approved their release on medical grounds". "We are grateful to the president for his clemency, to my wonderful lawyers and the prisons... it hasn't been easy for them but they did a good
job," Wood was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
The agency said Woods and Smith were then taken to the South African border post of Beitbridge, 450km (280 miles) south of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
The three prisoners were all former members of the Rhodesian intelligence and security forces but were granted South African citizenship by the apartheid authorities at the time of their conviction.
Over the years the three men had sought amnesty and transport to South Africa. Conjwayo, now in his 70s, is suffering from cancer, according to the Associated Press news agency.
In 2003 Woods applied for medical treatment in South Africa, but this was turned down. A driver had been hired to carry a bomb to a house in the city of Bulawayo where members of the ANC of South Africa were staying while in exile.
The bomb exploded while the driver was still in the car. The three men were also charged at the time with bombing several other ANC bases in Zimbabwe during the apartheid.
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