A notorious apartheid-era police chief was refused entry into Ireland because of fears that he would settle permanently and try to escape punishment for his crimes in South Africa.
Colonel Eugene Alexander de Kock, known as Prime Evil, was wanted in South Africa following the fall of apartheid and the election of the first African National Congress (ANC) government.
He had been condemned by a tribunal in his own country which had been investigating crimes by the white South African government’s notorious police service.
He headed up C10, a counterinsurgency unit within the South African police, which assassinated opponents of the country’s Apartheid regime. He was eventually convicted of six counts of murder, along with multiple counts of conspiracy to murder and many other offences.
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His wife and children fled South Africa and were already living in Ireland and had claimed political asylum in 1994.
In an aide memoire dated April 26th, 1994, to minister for justice Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, who was briefing taoiseach Albert Reynolds on an exclusion order she had issued under section five of the Aliens Act (1935), Irish officials outlined their grave concerns about the South African police official.
The order prevented de Kock from entering the State.
“The Garda authorities informed me recently that they have good grounds to believe that Col de Kock may intend to enter Ireland in the near future for the purpose of residence.”
“Col de Kock, I am informed, was recently given early retirement from his post following serious criticism by the Goldstone Commission which was established to investigate serious allegations of criminal political violence by elements within the South African Police and within political parties.”
The memo noted that Col de Kock had already been excluded from the UK.
“[He was excluded] on the grounds that the British authorities were satisfied he was involved in terrorist activities.”
De Kock was refused entry into Ireland. He was convicted in 1996 and spent almost 20 years in jail before being released in 2015.
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