Odile Harington
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Odile Harington (1961 - ) was born in South Africa and lived in Johannesburg.
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[edit] Early life
At the age of 23 Odile was an agent of South African military intelligence and was sent to Zimbabwe to infiltrate the ANC and to send back plans of the organizations’ buildings in Harare. Amnesty International USA
[edit] Arrest and trial
She was detected, arrested by police and interrogated by the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO). At her trial before the Zimbabwe High Court in November 1987 Odile testified that she had been tortured before February 1987 at a place called Daventry House, while she was being held at Mabelreign police station in Harare, and after May 1987 at the CIO detention centre in Goromonzi. She described repeated sexual assaults, severe beatings, burnings with cigarettes and other humiliating treatment. She alleged that when she was tortured at Daventry House the ANC official who had been her superior took part. According to her testimony, the ANC official beat her on the soles of the feet with a hosepipe and half-drowned her by ducking her head repeatedly in a container of water. This evidence was not challenged in court. Chief Justice Dumbutshena cited her torture in mitigation when he reduced her sentence on appeal.
Odile was sentenced to 25 years in jail on 27 November 1987.
On 3 December 1987 the South Africa Commissioner of Police said that Odile who had recently been sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment by a Harare Court, was not a spy and had not received any training or compensation. [1]
[edit] Release and return to South Africa
Clandestine Radio Watch cited a report from ‘’Clandestine Calling’’ magazine, December 1990 linking the closure of Radio Truth to the release of Odile. Sources in Harare stated that she was handed to South African officials on Thursday 1st November 1990 and flown to South Africa within hours.
Odile had spent about six and a half years in jail when released. It is understood that her sudden freeing followed years of exhaustive behind-the-scenes missions and efforts by South African officials.
The report stated that no confirmation of Odile’s release could be obtained from Pretoria that Thursday night.
The Pretoria News did however cover further reports confirming her release.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
• Pretoria Journal “A Spy's Sorry Story: Espionage Wasn't Her Forte” “She was South Africa's own little drummer girl, an idealistic, poignantly unqualified amateur enticed into the underworld of espionage and exploited by her handlers to infiltrate the African National Congress. But Odile Harington, unlike the heroine of John le Carre's novel, proved so clumsy a spy that she promptly…” November 20, 1990, Tuesday By Christopher S. Wren, Special to the New York Times (NYT); Foreign Desk Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 4, Column 3, 982 words
