Conviction of the Very Rev. Gonville A. ffrench-Beytagh
Diocesan Press Service. November 2, 1971 [96-10]
PRETORIA, South Africa -- The Very Rev. Gonville A. ffrench-Beytagh, Anglican Dean of Johannesburg, has been judged guilty by Judge Petrus Cillie, Chief Justice of the Transvaal, of violating South Africa's Anti-Terrorism Act. He received the minimum sentence of imprisonment for five years.
The white-haired, 59-year-old Dean, a long-time foe of apartheid (separation), was convicted of four of the 10 charges against him.
The Anti-Terrorism Act was introduced by the Government in 1967 to provide legislation covering activities inimical to established authority not included in the Suppression of Communism Act of 1951 and other laws. It created the new offense of "participation in terrorist activities" -- any action committed or attempted that endangers law and order, or conspiracy to incitement or to commit such acts. The Act allows the indefinite detention of suspects or of anyone believed to be withholding information about "terrorist activities."
Anyone arrested under the sweeping provisions of the Act is guilty unless he can prove his innocence "beyond a reasonable doubt. " A person can be convicted if his alleged offense is adjudged "to embarrass the administration of the affairs of state."
The Dean was convicted of the following charges:
o Possession of pamphlets belonging to the banned African National Congress, the South African Communist party and other banned organizations.
o "Encouragement" to violence in an address at a meeting of the South African Black Sash, a liberal women's anti-apartheid group.
o Incitement of a police undercover security agent, Kenneth Jordaan, a member of the Dean's Church, to take part in a violent uprising against the state.
o Distributing money on behalf of the Defense and Aid Fund.
A guilty verdict on any one of the 10 counts would have been enough to have caused the Dean to be found guilty of the main charge -- that of participating in terrorist activities and a conspiracy aimed at violent overthrow of the South African Government.
In New York City, the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, said of the conviction of Dean ffrench-Beytagh:
" It represents a travesty on justice, and sets at hazard the ministry of any person in South Africa whose religious commitment compels him (or her) to speak for, side with and aid the alienated and oppressed."
" The Dean," Bishop Hines said, "may have to pay the price for his forthright, humane dedication to truth and justice. If so, all Christians must help to bear his burden with him, and work to make such a costly sacrifice unnecessary."
Dean ffrench-Beytagh is free in $14, 000 bail and will file an appeal.
PRESIDING BISHOP'S STATEMENT on the Conviction of The Dean of Johannesburg
The verdict of a court in Pretoria convicting the Anglican Dean of Johannesburg, the Very Rev. Gonville ffrench-Beytagh, of subversion under the Terrorism Act raises the question as to who is subverting whom. It represents a travesty on justice, and sets as hazard the ministry of any person in South Africa whose religious commitment compels him (or her) to speak for, side with and aid the alienated and oppressed. The Dean was convicted on the flimsiest of evidence, and under the provisions of the Terrorism Act which holds that anyone so arrested is guilty unless he can prove his innocence "beyond a reasonable doubt." As inadequate as the structures of justice in the West may appear to be at times, they have always recognized the terrible flaw in any such assumption as the Terrorism Act supports. There is no even-handed justice here. There is only the iron grip which a frightened, biased, self-serving regime is willing to clamp upon any manifestation of conscience -- against apartheid and in the interest of human freedom -- because a government based on that horribly inhumane doctrine cannot tolerate such opponents. The Dean may have to pay the price for his forthright, humane dedication to truth and justice. If so, all Christians must help to bear his burden with him, and work to make such a costly sacrifice unnecessary.
The Rt. Rev. John E. Hines
Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church