S. Africa Judge Rejects Appeal of Sharpeville 6

A judge today rejected a bid to reopen the trial of the Sharpeville Six, and the blacks convicted for a mob murder once again face hanging unless President Pieter W. Botha intervenes.

The judge gave the defendants 35 days to appeal to Botha or the chief justice.

Botha has already turned down an appeal for clemency. In doing so, he spurned an international campaign to spare the six, who were found guilty in the mob killing of a black town councilor.

Pretoria Supreme Court Justice Willem Human, who presided over the original trial in 1985, rejected an application by defense lawyers to reopen the case to consider allegations that police coerced two state witnesses.

The defendants, five men and a woman, were convicted of complicity in the 1984 killing of the black town councilor who was stoned to death and burned during riots provoked by a rent increase.

Appeal ‘Frivolous, Absurd’

Human, who had granted a stay of execution hours before the six were to hang in March, said today the request to review the case was “frivolous and absurd.”

But he extended the stay of execution, which would have expired today, until July 19, giving defense attorneys 35 days to appeal once again to Botha and ask Acting Chief Justice P. J. Rabie to overrule the court’s decision.

However, Human indicated he thought that the chief justice would not overturn his decision and that he would tell the lawyers their only remaining hope lay in petitioning Botha again.