The inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Imam Abdullah Haron, who died in police custody in 1969, was reopened in the Western Cape High Court yesterday.
The Muslim spiritual leader died at the Maitland police station at the age of 45, having spent 123 days in detention.
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While the notorious security branch initially claimed he had been well treated while behind bars, an autopsy showed that he had 27 bruises and a fractured rib.
During the original inquest in 1970, the interrogating officers, all of whom have since died, claimed that Haron had sustained the injuries falling down a staircase at the Caledon police station (now Cape Town central police station).
The court heard that while in detention, Haron had smuggled out a message on a piece of toilet paper reading: “If you hear that I have died in prison by accident, you will know that it will not have been an accident.”
As proceedings got underway yesterday, state advocate Lifa Matyobeni dismissed the initial inquest as a “fraud.”
“We will submit that a massive and deliberate fraud was perpetrated by the state machinery in the 1970 inquest and as such, it demands justice prevails,” said Matyobeni.
“What we will attempt to show is the inconsistency in the version provided by the state branch police who were the only witnesses called to testify about the unaccounted injuries to Mr Haron’s body.”
“It could not have been an easy 53 years for the Haron family, waiting for this to come.”
“I am privileged and humbled to be part of the NPA (National Prosecution Authority), that is now alive to the plight of South Africans who suffered under the apartheid regime and did not benefit from the sacrifices of their loved ones and is willing and able to make amends.”
The court will conduct an inspection in loco at the Cape Town central police station and Maitland police station today.
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