SOUTH AFRICA
A Second Look
A judge in Pretoria overturned a previous ruling classifying the death of an anti-apartheid activist as a suicide, and accused the police who held him in custody of murder, raising the possibility of new inquiries into other cases in which detainees died in police custody during apartheid.
Anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol was killed after a fall from a 10th floor window at a Johannesburg police station in October 1971. A 1972 inquest had found that he jumped from the window to commit suicide. But Judge Billy Mothle ruled Thursday that he was pushed from the window or thrown off the roof – an act that amounted to murder, NPR reported.
72 other political detainees died in custody between 1963 and 1990, according to the Associated Press.
The ruling offers closure of a sort for Timol’s family. Though most of the main perpetrators have already died, the judge recommended Joao Rodrigues, a police officer involved in interrogating Timol, be investigated and prosecuted.
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