Rhodesian authorities confirmed on 8 December that a Swiss Roman Catholic priest, Father Paul Egli, aged 47, was being held in custody and would shortly appear in court on five charges of assisting guerillas and failing to report their presence.
Father Egli, a member of the Bethlehem Fathers stationed at the Berejena mission in the Chibi TTL in south east Rhodesia, was arrested on 24 November. He was later released from detention prior to trial on 10 January. Father Egli's missionary society told a press conference at its headquarters in Immensee, Switzerland, on 27 December that there was still no news of another of its members in Rhodesia, Father George Oreger, 45. Father Oreger, who was based at the Bondolfi Mission and had worked in Rhodesia for 20 years, disappeared on 3 December. He was last seen at a store in the Nyajena TTL, in the Chiredzi area 65 km south east of Fort Victoria, and fears were expressed that he could have been murdered or abducted.
The Rt. Rev. Donal Lamont, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Umtali who was convicted on 1 October on 4 counts of failing to report guerillas and inciting others to do likewise, has lodged an appeal against his 10-year prison sentence. It is believed that a date has since been fixed for the hearing.
