Arthur Chaskalson, lawyer who defended Mandela, dies

JOHANNESBURG -- Arthur Chaskalson, a civil rights lawyer who once helped defend Nelson Mandela and later became South Africa's chief justice, has died. He was 81.

South Africa's presidency confirmed Chaskalson's death Saturday. The state-owned South African Broadcasting Corp. said the late judge had been battling leukemia.

Chaskalson served as one of several lawyers on the defense team that challenged the apartheid government's prosecution of members of the African National Congress for sabotage in the 1960s case known as the Rivonia Trial. Among the defendants was Mandela, who received a life sentence and served part of many years of it on the notorious Robben Island before being freed.

Chaskalson worked on other civil rights cases and later became a judge in the post-apartheid government when Mandela was elected president in 1994.

In May 2005, Chaskalson retired from his role as chief justice and was replaced by his former deputy Pius Langa.

In his 2005 State of the Nation speech and shortly before Chaskalson's retirement, South African President Thabo Mbeki praised the Chief Justice as a "great son of our people" and a "giant among the architects of our democracy."

As a gesture of gratitude, Mbeki paid tribute to Chaskalson for everything he had done "as a South African, a lawyer and a judge, to shepherd us towards the construction of a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it." -- AP