Nelson Mandela is released from prison

Nelson Mandela was freed in 1990 after about 27 years in prison. Four years later he became South Africa's first president elected in fully democratic elections.

The 27 years counts from his first sentencing in 1962, not from the life sentence of 1964.

Context

Mandela was tried at Rivonia from October 1963 and on 12 June 1964 was sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage. He was sent to Robben Island that month as prisoner number 466/64. The Nelson Mandela Foundation also dates his earlier sentencing to 7 November 1962.

He was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison on 31 March 1982 and to Victor Verster Prison on 7 December 1988. He walked out of Victor Verster on 11 February 1990, after more than 27 years in custody. By the foundation's dates, that included roughly 18 years on Robben Island, about six and a half years at Pollsmoor, and a little over a year at Victor Verster. His prisoner numbers changed at each: 466/64, 220/82 and 1335/88.

F. W. de Klerk became South African president in 1989, began dismantling apartheid, lifted the ban on the African National Congress and ordered Mandela's release in February 1990.

Mandela and de Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. In 1994 the ANC won an electoral majority in South Africa's first free elections, and Mandela became president.