Percy Yutar

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Dr. Percy Yutar (29 July 1911, Cape Town-13 July 2002, Johannesburg) was South Africa’s first Jewish attorney-general. Yutar was the child Lithuanian immigrants. His father originally had the surname of Yuter before arriving in South Africa.[1]

Yutar began his career as a lawyer in Johannesburg and later became a junior law clerk in Pretoria’s Palace of Justice. In 1940, he was appointed a junior state prosecutor and eventually become the Deputy Attorney General for the Transvaal.

He prosecuted Nelson Mandela in the 1963 Rivonia Treason Trial. Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment as a result of the trial. [1]

Decades later, Mandela displayed kindness towards Yutar. In November 1995, the then South African President Mandela invited Yutar to lunch, which included a kosher meal. Mandela agreed with Yutar that he [Yutar] had played a minor role in the conviction and was doing his duty as prosecutor. [2]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Percy Yutar", The Scotsman. 
  2. ^ "Percy Yutar", The Guardian. 
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