S.Africa to drop murder charges against miners: prosecutor

South Africa’s top public prosecutor said Sunday that controversial murder charges against 270 miners for the killing of fellow workers shot dead by police, will be provisionally dropped.

“The murder charge against the current 270 suspects, which was provisional anyway, will be formally withdrawn provisionally in court on their next court appearance,” acting national director of prosecutions Nomgcobo Jibo told a news conference.

Thursday’s decision to charge the miners over the August 16 killings during a wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine, in what was the worst police violence since the end of apartheid, had triggered outrage.

The workers have been held in custody since they were arrested on the day of the shooting at Lonmin’s mine in Marikana, northwest of Johannesburg.