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• South African poet faces the death penalty

  Breyten Breytenbach, the anti-apartheid poet, was sent for trial in the Supreme Court today on charges carrying the death penalty. Mr Breytenbach, aged 36, is accused under the Terrorism and Anti-Communism Acts of helping to set up an illegal organization to promote armed struggle in South Africa intended to overthrow the white government... Mr Breytenbach is said to have been involved not only during his latest visit, but during a well-publicized visit in 1973, when he brought his wife. They are not allowed to live together under South African's racial laws.
• Playwright's denial on Biafra

  Nigeria's leading playwright, Wole Soyinka, aged 33, has smuggled a letter out of his prison cell here, denying emphatically that he confessed to aiding the secessionist regime of the former Eastern Region. In a 202-word note written on a small piece of paper, Mr. Soyinka, who has been in custody since August 17, accused the Government of seeking to discredt him and his efforts to bring about a cease-fire in the civil war. Chief Anthony Enahoro, Federal Commissioner for Information, told journalists here on October 28 that Mr. Soyinka had admitted agreeing to spy for the Biafrans, to help them buy arms and to work "for the overthrow of the Federal Government." The commissioner said the playwright confessed to meeting Biafran leaders in their acpital at Enugu on August 6, and in the Mid-West capital of Benin three days later when it was seized by rebel forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Victor Banjo....
• News in Brief: Verdict date on Ghanaian poet

  The special court trying Dr. Kofi Awoonor, the Ghanaian poet, on charges of subversion is to give judgment on October 29, it was announced today. Dr. Awoonor has denied harbouring Brigadier Kojo Kattah, a former Army officer wanted in connexion with an abortive bid to overthrow General Ignatius Acheampong's Government last year. [Full text.]
• Ghana refuses visa for trial observer

  "By Our Foreign Staff. The Ghana Government has cancelled a visa that it had issued to Sir Osmond Williams, a Welsh magistrate, who is a member of the executive comittee of the British branch of Amnesty International, to enable him to attend the trial of Dr. Kofi Awoonor, the Ghanaian poet, on trial for concealment of subversion. Dr. Awoonor is accused of sheltering a conspirator involved in a plot to overthrow Ghana's military regime. Three soldiers and two civilians were sentenced to death by a military tribunal at the end of last month for taking part in the alleged conspiracy.
• Ghana military grant pardon to jailed poet

  [Full Text] Ghana's ruling Supreme Military Council has granted a pardon to Dr. Kofi Awoonor, the Ghanaian poet and university lecturer, who was sent to prison for a year last Wednesday, the Ghana News Agency reported. He had been convicted of aiding the escape of Brigadier Alphonse Kattah, who is alleged to have instigated an abortive coup last year. Dr. Awoonor who was arrested last December, denied the charge. An official statement said that Dr. Awoonor was expected to return to the Cape Coast university in the next two weeks.