In late 1964, Mnangagwa blew up a train near Fort Victoria (now Masvingo), and was arrested by police inspectors in January 1965 at the Highfield home of Michael Mawema, who may have given them his location. He was given over to the Rhodesia Special Branch, which tortured him by hanging him upside down and beating him, an ordeal that reportedly caused him to lose hearing in his left ear. He was convicted under Section 37(1)(b) of the Law and Order Maintenance Act and sentenced to death, but his lawyers successfully argued that he was under 21, the minimum age for execution. Depending on which birth year is accepted for Mnangagwa, this claim might have been a lie. Other sources state that a priest intervened on his behalf, or that he avoided execution because he was Zambian, not because of his age. Whatever the reason, Mnangagwa was instead sentenced to ten years in prison.