Four members of the Roman Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) in Rhodesia have appeared before the regime's courts in the course of the last two months on charges under the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, and the Official Secrets Act. The chairman of the Commission JOHN DEARY, the deputy chairman and a member of the executive Father DIETER SCHOLZ, the organising secretary Brother ARTHUR DUPUIS and the press secretary Sister JANICE McLAUGHLIN were arrested by the Rhodesian Special Branch on 31 August. Their homes were searched, together with the Commission's office, and various documents removed. Father Scholz, a German Jesuit member of the Commission had been declared a prohibited immigrant two weeks earlier and given a month to leave the country (SM 14.8.77).
On 1 September Deary, Scholz and Dupuis were brought before Salisbury Magistrate's Court on allegations of contravening the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act and the Official Secrets Act. No charges were preferred. The three men were remanded until 30 September and released on bail of R $1,000 each. (RH 2.9.77)
Sister Janice, however, a member of the American Mary Knoll Order who had arrived in Rhodesia in May 1977 from Nairobi, continued to be held in Chikurubi Women's Prison outside Salisbury under a 30 day detention order. As press secretary of the Commission, Sister Janice had collected documentary evidence of the use of torture and atrocities by Rhodesian troops and police, the regime's tactics of psychological warfare and particularly the distribution of propaganda against the liberation movement, the expansion of the protected village programme and other aspects of the war situation. Her arrest, and that of the other three CCJP officials was probably aimed at preventing the publication of her work in the form of five fact papers, together amounting to a serious indictment of the regime's security forces.
(Sister Janice's research forms the basis of a new publication from the Catholic Institute for International Relations in London, entitled "Rhodesia: the propaganda war" - see FOCUS 12 p.3)
On 13 September Sister Janice appeared before the Salisbury Magistrate's Court, charged under section 49 of the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, (Prohibition against publication of false news), with spreading "fear, alarm or despondency" among the Rhodesian public. It was further alleged that she had obtained classified military and government information relating to the war and had possessed a radio receiver capable of picking up security force transmissions. The trial was postponed until 27 September and Sister Janice herself remanded in custody until 16 September for judgement on her application for bail. In a statement to the court she expressed her support for the freedom fighters of the liberation movement and her belief in the necessity of revolution to bring about a more equitable society.
On 16 September, Sister Janice was refused bail on the grounds that she was a threat to public order. Minutes after the ruling that she remain in custody, Father Scholz was arrested outside the courtroom and served with a detention order. In a separate hearing, it was alleged that he had encouraged the destruction of evidence relating to the case against the CCJP, thereby breaking the terms of his bail. On 23 September however he was acquitted of this charge and re-released. (GN 17.9.77; T 24.9.77)
Sister Janice was never in fact brought to trial. On 22 September she was declared a prohibited immigrant and deported following, it is believed, representations from the U.S. government. A spokesman for the regime's Attorney General said that the charges against her had now fallen away. (GN 23.9.77; BBC 24.9.77)
The three remaining officials, Deary, Dupuis and Scholz, appeared before Salisbury Magistrate's Court on 30 September. They were granted a renewal of bail and remanded until 5 December. Detailed charges are expected to be laid under the Official Secrets Act and the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act. (BBC 5.10.77)
