In a verdict handed down on 13 June, the Appellate Division of the Salisbury High Court has ruled that persons sentenced to death by special courts martial have no right to petition the regime's President for mercy. In other words, the sole remaining channel of appeal to the civil authorities against death sentences imposed by the security forces has now been blocked, and the right of the Commander of Combined Operations, Lt.-Gen. Peters Walls, as the person responsible for the administration of martial law, to order executions without challenge, has been formally confirmed.
The Appeal Court's decision overrules a previous ruling by the Salisbury High Court, delivered on 2 May in response to a petition presented by the Acting Chairman of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia, and represents a victory for the state, who had announced that they were to appeal. In effect, it endorses an earlier directive clarifying the martial law regulations of September 1978, and issued by the Acting President on the advice of the Executive Council.
The attitude to this latest development of Bishop Muzorewa, who in the months following the signing of the internal settlement agreement of March 1978 gave several assurances that political executions had ceased, is not yet known. The Appeal Court's decision, eliminating what could at least amount to a delaying tactic in the process towards execution, opens the way for illegal hangings to take place on an even larger scale than before.
On 26 June, confirmation was received by IDAF that hangings under martial law had recommenced on the previous Friday, 22 June. (A statement issued by the Ministry of Combined Operations shortly after the 2 May ruling had confirmed a previous assurance that executions under martial law, unless confirmed by the President, were being suspended pending the final outcome of the case.
There is evidence that hangings of political prisoners may be taking place on a large scale. In their report on the April elections in Rhodesia, Lord Chitnis and his research assistant record that during March 1979 alone, "one church source told us that ... 28 people were hanged for political offences in Salisbury Central Prison. This was confirmed by other sources, who also told us that they had heard reports of executions being carried out on the spot". (It is not known whether these hangings represented death sentences passed by civil courts or by the special courts martial). ("Free and Fair? The 1979 Rhodesian election" - A report by Observers on behalf of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Group, May 1979).
Lord Boyd, who headed an official team of observers to the Rhodesian elections on behalf of the British Conservative Party, reported that out of seven court martial hearings taking place in the Umtali area, two had resulted in the death penalty. In one case, that of a headman accused of sanctioning the execution by guerillas of a commercial driver, the defendant was known to have already been executed. In neither of the two cases were any witnesses brought before the court martial since, in Lord Boyd's view, "no witness would have been allowed to live". ("Report to the Prime Minister on the Election held in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia in April 1979", by Viscount Boyd of Merton et al, Appendix G).
Few of the names of those sentenced to death by special courts martial are known. In addition to the ten people named in FOCUS 22 p. 12, are SIMON MUSONZA and DUDZAI MUSHAYA-HEMBE. The latter was sentenced to death on 20 December 1978 by a special court martial in the Mrewa District for assisting guerillas. He was held in Chikurubi and Salisbury Remand Prisons from where he appealed to the Review Authority. At the beginning of May 1979 his conviction appears to have been quashed, and he is believed to have been released.
