Prosecutors in South Africa have provisionally dropped murder charges against 270 men whose colleagues were shot dead by police while on strike at the Marikana platinum mine.
The charges cannot be dismissed formally until the end of an inquiry, but prosecutors said all the detained men would be freed.
The miners were accused under an apartheid-era law of provoking police to open fire on 16 August, when 34 men were killed.
Lawyers had asked President Jacob Zuma to reverse the decision. But he said in a statement earlier that he would not intervene in the case.
Acting national director of prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba held a news conference on Sunday to announce the charges would be scrapped.
"Final charges will only be made once all investigations have been completed," she said.
"The murder charges against the current 270 suspects will be formally withdrawn provisionally in court."
Police said they opened fire at Marikana in self defence on 16 August after being threatened by a crowd who advanced towards them, armed with machetes.
Two police officers had been killed the previous week.
