Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial in 1964.
The trial followed a police raid on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, Johannesburg, in July 1963. The raid uncovered evidence linking senior African National Congress and Umkhonto we Sizwe members to plans to oppose apartheid. Mandela was already serving a sentence for leaving South Africa without permission and inciting a strike, but he was brought into the Rivonia proceedings as a central accused person.
In his famous statement from the dock, Mandela said he had fought against both white domination and black domination and described a democratic society as an ideal for which he was prepared to die. On 12 June 1964, the court sentenced Mandela and seven other defendants to life imprisonment rather than death.
The sentence began Mandela’s long imprisonment, much of it on Robben Island. A common mix-up is confusing the 1964 sentence with his 1962 arrest or the 1963 raid that led to the trial.