Mr. Justice O'Hagan
an settlement of an action brought by Mr. I Justice O'Hagan, a judge of the Eastern Cape Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa, against the Spectator Ltd., and Mr. Lain Macleod, the Editor of the Spectator, was an- nounced in the High Court on December 8.
Counsel for Mr. Justice O'Hagan said that in a leading article published on November 27, 1964, and entitled Torture and South Africa,' reference was made to the trial by. Mr. Justice O'Hagan of an action against the South African Police for damages for assault brought by Washington Bongco, a prisoner then under sen- tence of death for sabotage which involved a brutal murder of an African child. It was alleged in the article that Mr. Bongco had gathered impressive 'medical evidence that he had been most brutally assaulted but that the Plaintiff had dismissed this evidence as 'sheer fantasy' and had asked Mr. Bongco what he expected the Court to do since•he had already been sentenced to death. The Defendants had now had an oppor- tunity of • studying the evidence, including the medical evidence, tendered at the trial of Mr. Bongco, and they accepted unreservedly that although the Plaintiff in fact rejected Mr. Bongco's charges as fantasy he did not describe the medical evidence as fantasy nor did he ask Mr. Bongco what he expected the Court to do. The Defendants were represented by Counsel to apologise to-the Plaintiff. They much regretted the false statements in the article, which was based upon a South African report and pub- lished in good faith; and they recognised that these statements were a completely unjustified slur upon the Plaintiff and upon the judiciary in South Africa. They had agreed to pay a sub- stantial sum by way of damages and also to indemnify the Plaintiff as to his costs. In these circumstances Mr. Justice O'Hagan was willing to let the matter rest.
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