The trial of former security policeman, Joao Rodrigues, is expected to start on January 28th in the Johannesburg High Court.
The 80-year-old faces charges relating to the 1971 murder of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol.
A 1972 inquest claimed Timol took his own life by jumping from the 10th-floor window at the then John Foster Square Police Station.
The ruling was overturned by Pretoria High Court as murder last year. Implicated in the cover-up and defeating the ends of justice, Rodrigues was the last person to see Timol alive in room 10-26.
On Monday, his application for permanent stay of prosecution was again moved. The exact date of when this will be heard is expected to be announced early next month.
Rodrigues’ lawyers want the murder case struck off the roll based on his age. They also argue that the murder happened too long ago for justice to take its course.
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria found last year that Timol died at the hands of the apartheid security branch police while in detention.
But the state is not budging. “As the state, we will be opposing such an application because in as far as the law is concerned cases like murder, rape and any other serious case, they do not prescribe, it doesn’t matter how far long back the incident happened,” says NPA spokesperson, Phindi Mjonondwane.
“I think judge Ramarumo Monama’s statement this morning that justice delayed is justice denied. It sums up a feeling that not just as a Timol family but many other victims’ families throughout the country, and we are really impressed with the fact that the judge has been very assertive, and that trial has been set for January the 28th,” says Timol’s nephew, Imtiaz Cajee.
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