* Charges sparked public outrage
* Miners could face charges again when probes complete
* Killing of 34 miners by police evokes apartheid era
* Lonmin’s mines been idle for three weeks
By Ed Stoddard
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 2 (Reuters) – South African prosecutors
provisionally withdrew murder charges on Sunday against 270
miners who had been accused of killing 34 striking colleagues
shot dead by police, but said they could be recharged when
investigations are complete.
Public anger had been mounting at the charges, made under an
apartheid-era law under which the miners were deemed to have had
a “common purpose” in the murder of their co-workers.
The police killing of the strikers last month at the
Marikana mine, run by platinum producer Lonmin ,
was the worst such security incident since the end of white rule
in 1994, and recalled scenes of state brutality from that era.
“Final charges will only be made once all investigations
have been completed. The murder charges against the current 270
suspects will be formally withdrawn provisionally in court,”
Nomgcobo Jiba, the acting national director of prosecutions,
said in a televised news conference.
Continued…
