In June 1964, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa upheld sentences handed down at the Rivonia Trial, culminating in life imprisonment for Nelson Mandela and several co-defendants. The Rivonia Trial had begun in 1963 after police raided a farm at Rivonia, near Johannesburg, uncovering documents and materials that prosecutors said demonstrated the African National Congress’s (ANC) intent to pursue sabotage and armed struggle against the apartheid state. The accused, including Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada and others, were charged with sabotage, conspiracy to overthrow the government and related offences. The trial drew intense domestic and international interest. In court, defendants denied plans to wage terror and framed their actions as part of a long-standing resistance to racial segregation, economic injustice and political disenfranchisement. Mandela did not speak from the dock in the sentencing phase but had delivered a pre-sentencing statement on April 20, 1964 — commonly referred to as his ‘I Am Prepared to Die’ statement — in which he outlined the reasons for his actions and affirmed his commitment to a democratic South Africa. Although that speech is widely reported and preserved in historical record, this summary does not quote it verbatim. On June 12, 1964, the outcome became final when the court confirmed the imposition of life sentences. The sentences effectively removed several of the ANC’s most prominent leaders from active political life for decades. Mandela was initially incarcerated on Robben Island near Cape Town and later moved to other prisons; he would spend 27 years in custody before his release in 1990. The imprisonment of these leaders galvanized further domestic opposition to apartheid and prompted growing international condemnation, economic and cultural sanctions, and a sustained global campaign for their release. Historians view the Rivonia Trial and the subsequent life sentences as a turning point: while the sentences aimed to cripple the ANC’s leadership, they also transformed Mandela and his co-accused into enduring symbols of resistance. The trial’s legal records, contemporary press coverage and subsequent scholarly work document both the criminal charges brought by the apartheid government and the political context of organized resistance. Debates persist among historians and legal scholars about prosecutorial decisions, the selection of charges and the trial’s conduct, but the fact of life imprisonment for Mandela and others following the Rivonia Trial is well established. The Rivonia Trial left a complicated legacy. It removed key figures from active organizing at a critical moment, yet it contributed to the internationalization of anti-apartheid pressure and to the moral authority of Mandela and his colleagues. Their incarceration became central to campaigns for justice that played a role in the eventual dismantling of apartheid three decades later. Note: Exact judicial actions and dates are drawn from court records and established histories of the Rivonia Trial; where interpretations differ among historians, this account focuses on the widely corroborated facts of the sentencing and its immediate consequences.