Marikana mine strike: South Africa to drop murder charges

In perhaps one of the more unusual prosecutions.
The government of South Africa charged 270 striking miners with murder after 34 fellow miners were killed by South African police. To say that the South African police weren't on edge following the death of 2 fellow officers would be an under statement.  Yet, South African prosecutors chose to lay charges against these men even though they were not complicit  in the deaths of there fellow miners.

The charges cannot be dismissed formally until the end of the inquiry, but prosecutors said all detained The charges cannotminers would be freed.
Local authorities used a controversial apartheid-era law to accuse the miners of provoking police to open fire.
Miners were demanding a huge pay rise and recognition of a new union.
The killings, at the Marikana mine, owned by Lonmin, shocked the nation.
State prosecutors charged 270 miners with murder under the "common purpose" doctrine.
The rule was used by the white-minority apartheid regime to crack down on its black opponents, and at the time was opposed by the now governing African National Congress.