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Court to deliver judgement in Rodrigues case

former apartheid police officer Joao Rodrigues'.
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The High Court in Johannesburg is expected to deliver judgement on Monday on former apartheid police officer Joao Rodrigues’ application for a permanent stay of prosecution.

Rodrigues is accused of the murder of anti-Apartheid activist Ahmed Timol in 1971.

Rodrigues has argued that the prosecution will violate his right to dignity as he would be tried at his old age for a crime allegedly committed 48-years ago.

The 80-year-old faces a murder charge after an inquest found Timol was thrown to his death from the 10th floor of Johannesburg Central Police Station.

Timol’s nephew, Imtiaz Cajee, has highlighted concerns over delays to charge Rodrigues.

“We are always cautiously optimistic, it’s a long journey of epic proportions. Nobody ever imagined that in a democratic SA we would get an inquest signing reversed. But we need to look at the timelines. The ruling was made in October 2017 that Rodrigues must be charged. He only had his first court appearance on 30 July – which took almost 9 months. That also only happened because the docket was compiled. So there is a clear problem with the time delays.”

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