The second sitting of the inquest looking into anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol’s death at John Vorster Square in 1971 resumes on Monday.

Timol’s death was ruled a suicide in 1972, however a private investigation launched by Timol’s family uncovered new evidence which it presented to the NPA, asking for the inquest to be re-opened. The NPA agreed.

The Roodepoort teacher’s loved ones have always maintained that they did not believe Timol, the 22nd person to die in police custody, had jumped from the 10th floor of John Vorster Square while being interrogated by security police.

Timol’s brother Mohammed previously said: “For many years now, Ahmed’s memory has lived on, but the official records have text that Ahmed decided to commit suicide during interrogation while in detention in 1971, October 27.”

Mohammed said the initial inquest into his brother’s death took place between April and June in an all-white court.

‘It was actually a farce’

“The magistrate was white. The prosecutor was white. The security policemen were white. The system was white. We knew that we stood no chance to get the truth.

“The findings of the magistrate after many days of inquest hearings, which my parents and I attended every day, we could see through the farce, it was actually a farce, the inquest.”

He said the initial inquiry found that the security police were painted as good policemen that never tortured political detainees.

“Ahmed was not the 21st person to be killed in custody as a political detainee, he was the 22nd one. So all the policemen who were testifying about how they treated Ahmed [are not telling the truth], we knew very well that Salim Essop, who was giving testimony today [Monday] was almost killed and landed in hospital a few days after he and Ahmed were detained.”

‘We don’t accept security police’s versions’

Timol’s nephew, Imtiaz Ahmed Cajee, in the last 20-odd years has insisted that the family get to the bottom of what really happened to Ahmed.

“We do not accept the security police’s versions and the findings of that inquiry in 1972 and when the magistrate said Ahmed was treated kindly by the policemen, he was never assaulted, he was not tortured and Ahmed took his own life…

“We cannot accept that.”

[Source: News24]