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South Africa Mourns Death of Anti-Apartheid Icon, Lawyer George Bizos

Anita Powell

   JOHANNESBURG - South Africans are mourning the death of anti-apartheid
   activist and attorney George Bizos, best known for his role as defense
   lawyer for South African icon Nelson Mandela.

   Bizos' family said Thursday that the Greek-born lawyer, who came to
   South Africa as a refugee during World War II, died late Wednesday,
   "peacefully at home of natural causes, attended to by family." He was
   92.

   In a statement Wednesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa described Bizos as
   "the legal eagle of our country."

   Bizos defended Mandela and others in the so-called Rivonia Trial of the
   1960s, named for the location where the defendants had been arrested,
   which saw Mandela and companions sentenced to long prison terms for
   their roles in fighting the racist apartheid system.

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