The defence counsel application for the dropping of all charges against five of those accused in the trial under the Terrorism Act of nine SASO/BPC members was refused by the court on 23 March, but on the judge's instruction a number of charges were withdrawn.
The defence argued that the state had produced no evidence that SASO and BPC advocated violent change. A large number of documents had been 'thrown at the court indiscriminately' and the complicity of the accused had been assumed by implication.
In his judgement, which took a month to complete and was 100 pages long, Justice Boshoff found that on seven of the 13 charges there was no case to answer, but the rest still stood, including the main charge of conspiracy to bring about revolutionary change. Other charges retained included those relating to the pro-FRELIMO rallies in September 1974, and several against Saths Cooper, such as the distribution of pamphlets in Durban in 1972/73 and the organisation of a Sharpeville memorial meeting in 1973. Each of the accused still faces at least one charge.
At the end of March the defence began to lead its evidence. This will be reported in the next issue of Focus.
