The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) will pursue perjury charges against the former security policemen who gave evidence at the inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, while former apartheid policeman Sergeant Jan Rodrigues will be prosecuted for being an accessory to murder after the fact, according to News24.
Judge Billy Mothle ruled that Timol did not commit suicide, as previously stated by an apartheid-era inquiry into his death, but was killed by the security branch police. Timol was thrown from the 10 floor of the John Vorster Square police station in Johannesburg in 1971.
The court ordered that Rodrigues should "accordingly be investigated with a view to his prosecution" for participating in the cover-up of Timol's murder, Mothle ruled.
The Timol family was reportedly informed of the NPA's decision on Tuesday. They were told the investigating officer had made progress in compiling the dockets.
"For 46 years, the family has commemorated the loss under a cloud of official lies about the circumstances of his death, and for 46 years, the police involved in murdering and covering up their crime, have evaded responsibility. The police who murdered and covered up Ahmed Timol's death might have contributed to the family's -- and society's -- healing and closure had they admitted to their actions and applied for amnesty to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Instead, most went to their graves with the burdens of their unacknowledged guilt," the family reportedly said in a statement.