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The head of South Africa’s secret chemical and biological weapons programme during the apartheid era has been acquitted on 46 charges of fraud, assault and murder after a trial lasting more than two years. Wouter Basson, dubbed “Dr Death”, was accused of experimenting on prisoners with lethal agents, planning to assassinate Nelson Mandela with thallium, and nearly killing an anti-apartheid activist by dusting his underwear with the organophosphate paraoxon. But evidence from the government prosecution team was repeatedly disallowed by the trial judge. The government has said it will appeal.