A South African court has convicted four white teenagers for stabbing and beating to death a black man in a park and recommended life terms for each of them.
Magistrate Len Kotze from the Pretoria Regional Court convicted Christoff Becker, 19, and Frikkie du Preez, Gert van Schalkwyk and Reinach Tiedt, all 18, for beating, kicking and stabbing to death a man on 2 December, 2001.
The four earlier that evening had assaulted another black man in another park and during testimony claimed they thought he was a robber.
They had started the evening by partying in a nightclub before going on the rampage.
Mr Kotze said the convictions carried a minimum life sentence, adding that it would be now up to the High Court to impose the penalty. The four teenagers showed no emotion when he made the ruling.
They are all former students of the upscale and expensive Waterkloof High School, located in an exclusive suburb housing several embassies.
One of the four, Christoff Becker, is a son of the principal of the school.
The case rocked South Africa where hate crime is a sensitive issue more than a decade after the demise of apartheid in 1994.
