Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 27-10-2016
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has announced it will reopen the inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol who died in police custody 45 years ago.
The Ahmed Timol Family Trust revealed the decision by the NPA yesterday just two days before the anniversary of Timol’s death on the 27th October 1972.
The original inquest found in 1972 that nobody was to blame for Timol’s death. The magistrate concluded that Timol had not been maltreated during his detention and had committed suicide.
Members of the family‚ close friends and comrades of Roodepoort teacher and anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol never believed that he committed suicide by jumping from the 10th floor of John Vorster Square while under interrogation by security police.
They believe he was either tortured to death and thrown from the window‚ or pushed
Following a private investigation launched on behalf of the family, fresh evidence was placed before the NPA‚ which suggested that the magistrate had erred in issuing such findings.
Timol’s nephew & biographer Imtiaz Ahmed Cajee says after numerous attempts to reopen the inquest they have finally succeeded.
“At the beginning of this year with the assistance of the Foundation for Human Rights under the leadership of the former commissioner Yasmin Sooka we made a new application and this time we were also supported by advocate George Bizoz.”
Cajee says while most of the perpetrators directly involved in the arrests, detention and murder of Timol have passed on, the sole objective is to get the findings of the inquest reversed.
“It’s a great travesty of justice that 45 years the apartheid regime under the guise of magistrate (JJL) de Villiers totally covered up the inquest findings.”
Cajee says the national director of public prosecutions Shaun Abrahams has made a bold decision to reopen the inquest and that the Timol family is confident that he will follow through on his public commitment.
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