Timol family can oppose stay of prosecution

JOHANNESBURG - The family of slain anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol have been granted permission to oppose a notice for a permanent stay of prosecution brought by former apartheid police officer Joao Rodriques.

Rodrigues, 80,  has asked for a permanent halt of prosecution citing that he is old and would be prejudiced in a trial where many witnesses have died.

Rodrigues is the last person who saw Timol alive. His testimony was the driving force in the 1972 inquest which ruled that Timol committed suicide by jumping to his death from the 10th floor of the John Voster Square building in Johannesburg.

The verdict was overturned by a court in October 2017 after a long campaign by his family.

Timol, 29, was arrested in Johannesburg in October 1971 and died five days later.

Rodrigues has been implicated in the murder of Timol.

During arguments, advocate Howard Varney who is representing the Timol family, told the court that his clients should be allowed to intervene in Rodrigues’ application.

“Against all odds, the Timol family have waged a tireless campaign over decades seeking truth, seeking justice," he said.

Varney said if Rodrigues is allowed a permanent stay of prosecution, it would amount to relieving an individual of accountability and sanction.

He said that the family would be seriously prejudiced if they are not given an opportunity to share their version of the facts before the court.

“Such a court would not just need to hear the facts from the accused, but the facts from the victims - the family.

"If Rodrigues is allowed to escape justice then the court would rob them and indeed other families of the possibility of closure from a most painful past,” Varney argued.

Family members of Hoosen Haffejee, who died in police custody during the apartheid era, also wanted to intervene in Rodrigues’s application, saying that the stay of his prosecution could create a culture where all victims of apartheid may see perpetrators escape justice.

Haffejee's family believes that he was murdered.

Judge Ramarumo Monama said he does not want to preempt the findings of the Haffejee inquest by allowing the family to intervene in the Timol matter.

Monama denied their application saying it should be based on facts and not based on generalisations in order to be successful. 

The matter will return to court on January 28, 2019.

- African News Agency