KENYA: Court-Martial

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The court-martial came to order in a British army hut outside Nairobi. The defendant: Captain Gerald Griffiths, 43, a British officer of the Durham Light Infantry charged with "disgraceful conduct" and "cruelty" towards prisoners suspected of being Mau Mau terrorists.

A British lieutenant told how Griffiths made one of his prisoners take off his pants. Then, the witness testified, Griffiths handed his knife to an African private and commanded: "Castrate him." The private, a 16-year-old Somali named Ali Segat, did not obey, so Griffiths changed his order: "Cut off his ear!" With a quick slice, Segat complied

Private Segat testified: "It bled very much. I gave the knife back to the captain and threw the ear on the ground." Griffiths was quoted as saying: "That was quick." Next day, on Griffiths' orders,

Segat used his bayonet to carve a hole in another prisoner's ear. "Captain Griffiths gave me a piece of signal wire," he said, "and told me to tie it to the ear." Then the patrol moved off, with Segat leading the prisoner by the ear.

Other witnesses testified that later, Griffiths decided that the prisoner whose ear had been lopped off was going to bleed to death. He did not want that to happen. "This man must be shot," said the captain. The prisoner's handcuffs were unlocked and an officer told him to run. "Shoot!" came the order, and the man was shot dead.

Griffiths, who only last fall was acquitted of charges of murdering an African tribesman who had killed his favorite horse (TIME, Dec. 7), based his defense on the notion that leading a "native prisoner" by the ear is "quite proper" and "does not cause pain." But the court was unimpressed. Captain Griffiths was found guilty, cashiered and sentenced to prison for five years.