Zimbabwean prison officials on Saturday released three South African spies who were jailed for life in 1988 for murder and sabotage, a state daily reported.
”Three South African spies, who were jailed for life in 1988 for murder and sabotage after bombing the African National Congress bases in Zimbabwe during apartheid era, will be released today [Saturday} from Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison following a Presidential pardon,” the Herald reported.
The daily quoted Zimbabwe Prison Service spokesperson Elizabeth Banda as saying those being released were Kevin Woods, Michael Smith and Phillip Conjwayo.
”The president [Robert Mugabe] has approved their release and they are also being released on medical grounds. They will be released … today [Saturday].”
The trio were sentenced to death by the High Court in 1988 for the murder of a Zimbabwean driver hired to take a car bomb to a house owned by the ANC in the second city of Bulawayo.
The bomb, however, detonated while the driver was still in the car. Their sentences were commuted to a life in prison after the Supreme Court had found in another case that a long delay in carrying out death sentence was, at that time, unconstitutional.
Over the years, Woods, Conjwayo and Smith had sought amnesty and deportation to South Africa after they had been granted citizenship by Pretoria after committing the crime.
At the time of their arrest the three were Zimbabwean citizens.
In 2003, Woods applied to seek medical treatment in South Africa but was turned down.
Another member of the group, Barry Desmond Bawden, was released from prison in 1999 after serving his full sentence minus remission for good behaviour.
Bawden was in a different group from the other three because he had not participated in the murder of the Zimbabwean driver but was involved in other sabotage activities.
Zimbabwe released South African citizens who breached its laws whilst in action against the liberation movements at the request of President Nelson Mandela’s government soon after the country’s first democratic elections.
In December last year, Zimbabwe also released another South African spy, Aubrey Welken, who had been arrested in 2003 for running an espionage ring. — Sapa-AFP