People sometimes forget why Nelson Mandela was in prison; I am old enough to remember the trial quite well.

I remember the judge (they had bench trials there); I think his name was Mr. Justice de Wet (sp?); at sentencing (and this is from memory; it was back in the 60’s) he said something to the effect of:

“The crime of which the defendant has been convicted is in fact one of high treason. The state has chosen not to charge him with that crime and thus the supreme penalty cannot be imposed”.

Mandela was found with enough explosives to blow Cape Town to kingdom come; and plenty of correspondence demonstrating that he intended to go through with it.

So he was no “political prisoner”; but a terrorist of the first order.

He may well have renounced those dispositions later in life; but back in the 1960’s Pretoria had no choice but to incarcerate him.

If someone in America was found similarly plotting here in 2022; should the Attorney General just smile and dismiss all charges?

I think not.

He would removed from office in three seconds and rightly so.