On 31 July 1979, the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Cabinet announced that with immediate effect no death sentences imposed by special courts martial would be carried out until they had been considered and confirmed by the regime's President Mr. Josiah Gumede
(Under the martial law regulations, no appeal is possible to any civilian court against a verdict of a special court martial. Death sentences imposed by special courts martial are considered by a Review Authority comprising three senior members of the government appointed by the Commander of Combined operations Lt. Gen. Peter Walls. A number of martial law death sentences are known to have been quashed by the Review Authority, and retrial ordered).
The Cabinet announcement means that the 13 June verdict of the Appellate Division of the Salisbury High Court, which removed the right of a defendant under martial law to petition the President for clemency, has been reversed. It represents a further shift in policy in what is now a long-standing dispute over the activities and jurisdiction of special courts martial between the Cabinet, the judiciary and the security forces.
