HC Deb 23 January 1990 vol 165 c605W
Mr. Caborn

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether any representations have been received on behalf of Sibusiso Senele Masuku and Oupa Josias Mbonane currently under sentence of death in South Africa for their alleged involvement in offences arising out of political protest; and what action he has taken about these cases.

Mr. Maude

[pursuant to his reply, 16 January 1990, c. 165–67]: We have in fact received a number of representations about Mr. Sibusiso Senele Masuku and Oupa Josias Mbonane. We consider intervening, exceptionally, in such cases only when all legal avenues of appeal have been exhausted. Our criteria are that the case must be clearly political and there must be strong extenuating circumstances or grounds to doubt the fairness of the judicial process. We are not prepared to make appeals in cases involving indiscriminate terrorism. With legal avenues yet to be exhausted, we have not intervened with the South African Government in these cases.

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