South Africa: The Pimpernel's Exit

To his childhood friends, South African Attorney Abraham Fischer seemed destined for great things. The son of a former judge-president of the Orange Free State, Fischer studied at the best schools, went on to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, displayed a keen mind and a deep social conscience. Last week, Fischer stood in the dock of the Pretoria Palace of Justice, charged with 15 counts of Communist activity and conspiring to commit sabotage, fraud and forgery under South Africa's Suppression of Communism Act.

Unlike many South Africans prosecuted under the country's catch-all subversion law, Fischer made the government's case...