hgs04. Save the Pretoria 3!

In November 1980 three young freedom fighters, Petrus Lubisi, Ncimbithi Mashigo and Naphtali Manana, were sentenced to death for attacking a South African police station. In Britain, Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) organised pickets, marches and media publicity to save their lives. After a South African appeal court confirmed the sentence in April 1982 the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting. On 3 June 1982 the British Foreign Office met a SATIS delegation. On the same day, as a result of the campaign, the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.