On 2 December, a year and a day after they were arrested, the five Whites connected with NUSAS were found not guilty of conspiring to promote the policies of banned organisations. Glen MOSS (24), Charles NUPEN (26), Edward WEBSTER (33), Cedric DE BEER (23) and Karel TIP (31) had been on trial since April.
In summing up the judge found the evidence of three police informers to be unconvincing and said that a good deal of irrelevant evidence had been submitted by both sides. The State, he concluded, had failed to prove that the accused had furthered a scheme aiming at making social, political and economic change by the promotion of disorder, or unlawful acts, or by the encouragement of feelings of hostility between black and white. Although the five men advocated a system completely contrary to the present form of government there was no evidence that they had the aims of the banned ANC or Communist Party in mind while working for change.
To decide whether the accused's action in campaigning for the release of political prisoners was unlawful, the judge said he considered whether the campaign could reasonably have resulted in the actual release of the prisoners, which he said was not possible. In view of his findings, he ended, the existence of a conspiracy among the five men became academic.
