Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 11-01-2019
The nephew of Ahmed Timol says former apartheid-era policeman Joao Rodrigues must be held accountable for his part in the murder of the late struggle stalwart.
In an affidavit filed with the high court this week, Imtiaz Cajee says he’s opposing Rodrigues’s application for a permanent stay of execution.
Seventy nine-year-old Rodrigues applied to the court for a permanent stay of execution, based on his age.
He also claims that because Timol died in 1971 and the state failed to charge him at the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings in 1996 and 2002, justice would not be served by prosecuting him now.
Rodrigues is charged with Timol’s murder following an inquiry Last year in which the High Court in Pretoria ruled that the apartheid struggle stalwart did not commit suicide but was rather pushed to his death on October 27, 1971, while he was in police detention at the then-notorious John Vorster Square in Johannesburg.
Cajee says the court has already confirmed his family has a substantial interest in the application.
“Rodrigues claims that due to his age and that he’s the only witness that is still living from the 1971 murder of Ahmed Timol that he must not be charged. But Rodrigues seems to forget that murder does not prescribe and on that basis, the families of Ahmed Timol and many other activists expect Rodrigues to be held accountable for his actions.”
The application is due to be heard on January 28.
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