Abstract. The fission fragment angular distributions for the system 12C + 232Th have been measured in the energy range 0.97 < Ec.m./VB < 1.22. The measured anisotropies have been compared with the predictions of the standard saddle point statistical model, using the second moment of the compound nucleus spin distribution (I 2) deduced from a Wong model fit to the fission excitation function. While the measured anisotropies agree with the standard saddle point statistical model for E .... /VB > 1.05, they are abnormally large at lower energies. This is also true for the existing measurements of 160 and 19F -+-232Th systems. Since for this system pre-equilibrium fission contributions are not expected, this anomaly indicates strong channel coupling effects leading to an increase in (/2) at sub-barrier energies.