Winnie Mandela Faces Prosecution in Assault : South Africa: Wife of ANC leader accused in 1988 kidnaping and beating of four youths at her home.

The government said today it will charge Winnie Mandela with kidnaping and assault in a 1988 incident in which four youths were allegedly taken to her house and beaten.

One youth was killed and the former head of Winnie Mandela’s bodyguard unit, Jerry Richardson, has been convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the same case.

Mandela, 56, is the wife of African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela. The decision to prosecute her is certain to damage relations between the white-led government and the ANC, the country’s leading opposition group.

Winnie Mandela will stand trial with seven members of her former bodyguard unit who already have been charged, said Klaus von Lieres und Wilkau, attorney general for the Johannesburg Supreme Court.

“After careful consideration of all the relevant facts, including possible implications beyond the normal legal ones, I have decided to prosecute Mrs. Mandela,” he said in a statement.

She will face four counts of kidnaping and four of assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm, he added.

Winnie Mandela has denied any wrongdoing but has never given a full account of the episode.

According to the court testimony, four black youths were kidnaped in December, 1988, from a church in Soweto and taken to Mandela’s home in the township, where they were repeatedly assaulted.

One of the youths, 14-year-old Stompie Seipei, was killed.

According to testimony, Winnie Mandela’s bodyguards accused Seipei of being a police informer and the three others of having homosexual relations with the white minister who ran the church home.

The Methodist Church cleared the minister of any misdeeds. There was no evidence presented that Seipei, a well-known anti-apartheid activist despite his young age, was a police spy.

The three surviving youths testified that Winnie Mandela participated in the beatings.

She is expected to be formally charged Monday, when the former bodyguards are scheduled to appear in the regional court in the Soweto township outside Johannesburg.

Mrs. Mandela and her husband were not available for comment.