SOUTH AFRICA: TRIAL OF WINNIE MANDELA ADJOURNED AFTER PROSECUTION ANNOUNCES KIDNAP OF ONE KEY WITNESS

Record ID: 899227

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: TRIAL OF WINNIE MANDELA ADJOURNED AFTER PROSECUTION ANNOUNCES KIDNAP OF ONE KEY WITNESS
  • Date: 11th February 1991
  • Summary: (VISNEWS QUBEKA) CU WOMAN WITH ANC POSTER
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2005 15:09
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6IROHY0NPQ27HTUQ7W6JPYWZT
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Winnie Mandela's kidnap and assault trial was adjourned on Monday (February 11) after the prosecution announced one of the key witnesses had been kidnapped.

    Prosecutor Jan Swanepoel told the Rand Supreme Court in Johannesburg he was unable to continue until the witness, one of the anti-apartheid activists alleged to have been abducted by Mrs Mandela's bodyguards and beaten at her house two years ago, had been found.

    Earlier on Monday, Winnie Mandela, wife of African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Nelson Mandela, and her three co-accused pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

    She submitted a written statement to the court which said that the four activities had been taken from a Soweto church hostel to prevent them being homosexually assaulted by the church minister.

    Winnie Mandela denied in the statement that the activities had been held against their will at her home or been assaulted there.

    The former leader of Mandela's personal bodyguard has been sentenced to death for the murder of one of the activists, 14-year-old Stompie Seipei who died after the alleged beatings.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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