The Freedom of Expression Institute welcomes the declaration in the Cape Town High Court by Acting Deputy Judge President John Hlope that key sections of the Defence Act relating to the conduct of courts martial are unconstitutional and calls for their immediate scrapping or amend ment.

Judge Hlope was dealing with the trial by court martial of two soldiers on charges related to the leaking of military intelligence reports about the operation of drugs and weapons syndicates operating out of military bases and alleged racist behaviour of military officers. He ruled that the holding of the court martial in secret and the barring of the media from the proceedings was unconstitutional and ordered that the entire record be made public.

He also ruled unconstitutional the appointment of officers conducting courts martial who may not be legally trained or qualified and the bar on a person convicted by such a court appealing to the High Court. He said that the Constitution held that judicial officers had to be "appropriately qualified" and only a "court of law" could jail a person.

The FXI Defence Fund funded the legal defence of the soldiers in order to uphold the constitutional right of public access to information through open court hearings. For several years it has been calling for the government to participate in a process whereby current legislation - most of it passed during the apartheid era -- should be reviewed in the light of constitutional principles and scrapped or amended accordingly.

The Defence Act is one of the laws the FXI complained about and although the Ministers of Justice and Safety and Security have recently agreed to form a ``working group'' to review ``unconstitutional'' legislation, the FXI is concerned that because of delay innocent people may be victimised as these two soldiers were.

The continued existence of "unconstitutional" legislation on the Statute Book seriously diminishes the democracy which has been established at such great cost in this country.

Nanagolo Leopeng (Information Officer) 011 403 8403