Ex-apartheid cop petitions SCA for stay of prosecution on Timol murder

Former apartheid cop Joao Rodrigues, who is accused of murdering anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, has petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to stay his prosecution for his alleged role in the murder.

“The main points of argument for the petition include, among others, that an amnesty was granted to perpetrators or alleged perpetrators of unlawful conduct of a political nature or alternatively that there was an agreement with the authorities to the effect that no prosecutions would be instituted for political offences of this nature,” Timol’s nephew, Imtiaz Cajee, said in a statement on Wednesday.

“It also argues about improper conduct of deponents who filed opposing affidavits for the first and second respondents, namely the National Director of Public Prosecutions and minister of justice and correctional services, for failing to file affidavits timeously.”

Last month in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Judge Ramarumo Monama set a provisional date of December 12 for Rodrigues’ trial, pending the outcome of the petition to the SCA.

If the petition fails, the trial will go ahead.

On October 21, however, both legal teams would need to provide an update to Judge Monama on the progress of the case, Cajee told News24.

This update would include the status of the petition.

“By October 21, Rodrigues’ legal counsel should have given [the judge] a proper update, so by then if they would have petitioned the SCA. That would have been done already and the judge would be notified,” Cajee explained.

Timol was killed in police detention in 1971 at the notorious John Vorster Square police station, which was later renamed Johannesburg Central police station.

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