6 Condemned S. Africans Lose Bid for New Trial

A judge refused Monday to reopen the case of the Sharpeville Six, five men and a woman sentenced to hang for the murder of a black township official. Their attorney vowed to appeal but admitted, “I don’t have much hope.”

The Pretoria Supreme Court judge, Willem J. Human, granted the six, all of them black, until July 19 to appeal his decision but added that in his opinion, their only hope is a reprieve by President Pieter W. Botha.

Botha had earlier turned down their appeal for clemency, touching off increased political tension in March and a worldwide campaign to spare the six, including a plea for mercy from President Reagan.

The six were convicted of killing Joseph Dlamini, a town councilor in Sharpeville, south of Johannesburg. In September, 1984, he was stoned, hacked with machetes and then doused with gasoline and set afire by a mob of about 100 people. The incident occurred during rioting provoked by a rent increase and marked the beginning of a two-year black uprising.

Whether any of the six were directly involved in the killing is hotly contested. But in convicting them of murder, Human, the original trial judge, ruled that as members of the mob they had “common cause” with those who actually did the killing and thus were equally guilty under South African law.

The defense sought to reopen the trial on the grounds that two state witnesses were coerced by police into lying. On March 17, only hours before the six were to be executed, Human delayed the hangings to allow the defense to present that evidence.

In his ruling Monday, Human called the request to review the case “frivolous and absurd.” He said he does not have the authority to reopen the case because an appeal has already been rejected by the nation’s highest court, the Appeals Court. He rejected the defense contention that a judge has the authority to reopen cases in which the trial court has been misled by false evidence obtained through coercion.

Even if he were to reopen the case, Human said, the new evidence would not sway him to change his ruling because there was ample uncontested evidence to implicate all six defendants.

“You can throw the evidence out of the window and the case is still 100% against them,” he said.

Prakesh Diar, the defendants’ attorney, said he will ask Acting Chief Justice P. J. Rabie to overturn Human’s decision. But Diar agreed with Human that such an appeal has little chance of success and that the defendants’ best hope is in sending another clemency petition to President Botha.

Not Much Hope

“I don’t have much hope, really,” Diar said. “At the end of the day it is probably going to be a political decision. I hope and I pray that the state president will reconsider.”

The six condemned are Mojalefa Sefatsa, 32, a fruit vendor; Reid Mokeona, 24, unemployed; Oupa Deniso, 32, a quality control inspector at a steel plant; Theresa Ramashamole, 26, a waitress; Francis Mokgesi, 30, a window dresser and professional soccer player, and Duma Khumalo, 28, a college student.

They have been on Death Row at Pretoria’s Central Prison since their conviction in December, 1985.