1956 Treason Trial
The Treason Trial ( German: The treason trial ) was a court case in South Africa. 156 South Africans were accused of treason. The trial lasted from 1956 to 1961 and ended with the acquittal of all defendants.
Prehistory
On 26 June 1955, the opposition, cross-species Congress Alliance had adopted the Freedom Charter, which advocated mainly to overcome the apartheid introduced in 1948. The Congress Alliance consisted of the African National Congress ( ANC), the South African Indian Congress (SAIC ), the South African Coloured People's Organisation ( SACPO ) and the Congress of Democrats ( SACOD ). The objectives of the Freedom Charter were considered by the South African government as treason.
On December 5, 1956 144 of the defendants were later arrested, another twelve a week later. They were called to the Johannesburg Central Prison, Fort brought.
Involved in the process
Defendant
The 156 defendants represented all organizations of the Congress Alliance. Of the defendants were after the then racial laws 104 black, 23 white, 21 ethnic Indians and Coloureds 8. Ten defendants were women. The defendants were detained in the prison of Johannesburg in communal cells, but separated by race and gender.
The number of defendants was reduced after the consultation period on 92. In November 1957, the case against 30 accused was separated, among them Nelson Mandela. This process began in August 1959. The remaining 61 accused were acquitted mid-1959.
Until the final defendants were among the 30:
- Nelson Mandela, ANC
- Ahmed Kathrada, Secretary-General of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress
- Walter Sisulu, the ANC, SACP
- Stanley Lollan, SACP
- Leon Levy, trade union leaders of the South African Congress of Trade Unions
- Helen Joseph, a union leader and fighter for women's rights
- Lilian Ngoyi ANC, co-founder of the Federation of South African Women
- Joe Slovo, SACP
- Duma Nokwe, ANC
- Bertha Mashaba Gxowa, ANC
- Ida Flyo Mntwana, ANC, first president of the South African Federation of Women
- Farid Adams, Transvaal Indian Youth Congress
- Elias Moretsele, ANC, died shortly before the end of the process
Other well-known defendants were:
- Albert Luthuli, ANC chairman
- Oliver Tambo, ANC
- Alex La Guma, journalist and writer, SACPO, SACP and ANC
- Archie Gumede, Liberal Party / ANC
- Ruth First, SACP
- Yusuf Dadoo, SACP, Chairman of the South African Indian Congress
- Frances Baard, ANC, African National Congress Women's League, trade unionist
- Lionel "Rusty " Bernstein, SACP
- Gert Sibande ANC
- Keodirelang Zachariah Matthews, ANC
- Reginald " Reggie " September SACPO
Defender
Chief of Defence was Israel Maisels, also known as Issy Maisels. Other defenders were Sydney Kentridge, Vernon Berrangé, G. Nicholas, Rex Welsh, Ruth Hayman, Bram Fischer, Norman Rosenberg and Maurice Franks. Joe Slovo defended himself, while Nelson Mandela and Duma Nokwe defended themselves after the Sharpeville massacre and then proclaimed a state of emergency in April 1960 at his own request itself.
Prosecutor
Accuser was the Union of South Africa, represented by chief prosecutor van Niekerk and Oswald Pirow ( January 1958 until his death in 1959) and de Vos, who Pirow replaced.
Judge
As a judge, FL Rumpff served as Chairman and Justice Kennedy and Ludorf, who was replaced by Judge Bekker for bias.
Procedure and judgment
From December 1956 to January 1958 from the charges Magistrate Court in Johannesburg were prepared and tested for significance. In the courtroom, the defendants were seated in alphabetical order, not divided by skin color.
64 defendants were acquitted at the end of the test phase. The second phase of the process took place in Pretoria. The accused were brought to trial days by bus from Johannesburg to Pretoria. They were not detained permanently. In November 1957, the indictment was rewritten and started a separated case against 30 defendants. The other remaining 61 defendants were acquitted mid-1959. In August 1959, the case against the 30 main defendants began before the Supreme Court in Pretoria. On April 8, 1960, the ANC was banned as a result of the Sharpeville massacre; the process took months instead without defenders. On August 3, 1960, Mandela began his plea on 7 October of the pleadings of the defendants had been completed. On March 29, 1961, the 30 remaining defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence.
Events in South Africa during the process
While the most important representatives of the ANC were in prison, a successful bus boycott took place in 1957 in Alexandra. The blacks gained self-confidence. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC ) was established in 1959, who fought apartheid from the point of view of blacks. His supporters protested especially against the discriminatory pass laws so that it came on 21 March 1960 Sharpeville Massacre, in which 69 demonstrators were shot by the Black South African police. On April 8, 1960 numerous anti -apartheid organizations such as the ANC and PAC were banned and declared a national state of emergency.
In the same year Albert Luthuli was awarded the world's first Black Nobel Peace Prize. He was allowed to leave the country until 1961, however, to answer him.
Follow
The process resulted in a solidarity of the opposition groups about the breed barriers.
"Inter -racial trust and cooperation is a difficult plant to cultivate in the poisoned soil outside. It is somewhat Easier in here where ... the leaders of all ethnic factions of the movement are together and explore each other 's doubt and reservations, and speak about them without constraint. Coexistence in the Drill Hall deepens and recreates Their relations ships. Trust and cooperation across racial barriers of time are difficult to be refined plants in the poisoned earth out there. In here, it is somewhat easier where ... the leaders of all ethnic groups of the liberation movement are gathered and they can explore the mutual doubts and reservations and speak freely about it. The common endured Drill deepened and renewed their relationships. "
In Western Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, it was during the Treason Trial first significant Solidaritätsbezeugungen with the South African anti-apartheid organizations. For financial support of the defendants Treason Trial Fund was set up with the support of Sammy Davis Jr.. Further significant financial support came from the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa.
South Africa came out on pressure from other member countries such as Guinea in April 1961 from the Commonwealth and traded from now on as " South Africa ".
On December 16, 1961, the ANC founded with the SACP also banned the military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK ) to take the armed struggle against the apartheid regime. Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada and Lionel Bernstein were later rearrested and sentenced in the Rivonia Trial in 1964, among other things because of " sabotage and planning armed struggle " to life imprisonment. Bram Fischer worked as a lawyer in the Rivonia Trial.
Oliver Tambo was after his release under house arrest, then went into exile, where he was ANC chairman. Many of the defendants were also later put under house arrest or otherwise persecuted. Archie Gumede was Chairman of the United Democratic Front in the 1980s.
Mandela learned during the process in 1957, his second wife Winnie Madikizela - Mandela, whom he married in 1958.