Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 22-10-2018
The Ahmed Timol Family Trust says it’s shocking that former security branch policeman Joao Rodrigues’ legal representative plan to argue that he should not be prosecuted on the basis of his age and the amount of time that has passed since Ahmed Timol’s murder.
Rodrigues will be back in the South Gauteng High Court today for the murder of the anti-apartheid activist in 1971.
The trust says the court’s response to their argument will have implications beyond Rodrigues for other former members of apartheid-era security forces who perpetrated grievous crimes but either chose not to approach the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty or had amnesty applications declined.
In October 2017, the High Court in Pretoria ruled that Timol did not commit suicide but was rather murdered, overturning a 40-year-old inquest finding that endorsed the police’s version that Timol jumped to his death.
During the reopened inquest, the magistrate accepted Roderiques evidence that he was alone with Timol in a 10th floor interrogation room at the security police’s Johannesburg headquarters when Timol committed suicide by jumping out of the window.
Timols nephew Ahmed Cajee says the family will continue to pursue the matter until justice served.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful that he expects out just because of time that we should not pursue this matter. As the Timol family and you know the victims families throughout the length and breadth of this country, this is something we’ve been waiting for, for a very long time for all these cases to be pursued, for them to be investigated.”
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