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Dr Neil Aggetts’ death was not suicide: Judge

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Four decades after his death, the Johannesburg High Court has ruled that Dr Neil Aggetts’ death was not suicide.

Judge Motsamau Makume says there is no evidence that suggests that the anti-apartheid activist took his own life.

Judge Makume is handed down the judgment on Friday in the re-opened inquest into Aggetts’ death.

Johannesburg High Court delivers judgment in the Aggett Inquest:

Trade unionist and medical doctor, Aggett was found hanging in his cell at John Voster Square on the 5th February 1981.

Makume has accused the 1982 inquest of being bias and protecting the apartheid regime.

He says the evidence brought to this inquest challenged all the initial findings.

In the current inquest, Makhume notes that some evidence have been destroyed.

He also accused former security branch officers of fabricating evidence in the initial inquest to cover-up the actual manner Aggett died.

Former apartheid police officer denies involvement in torture, death of Neil Aggett

Last year, former Security Branch police officer, under the apartheid government, Martin Naude denied ever being involved in any cover-up of a detainee’s death during his 40-year career as an investigator.

Apartheid security police said that Aggett committed suicide, however, his family believes that they were responsible for his death.

Naude admitted to interrogating Aggett from mid-December 1981, and says he last saw him on January 9, 1982 after which he then returned to his home town of East London. He denied being involved in the torture of any detainee, including Agget.

He says, “Nobody trained me to that effect, nobody told me that, nothing, I wasn’t present when somebody did that. I can say without any shadow of a doubt I was never part and parcel of that. And as an investigator through a career of 40-years, personally I was never involved in any cover up, I’ve never been asked to change a statement or I never volunteered to change a statement, even in this hearing.”

Naude maintained throughout his testimony that he has no knowledge of the torture and assault of Aggett or any other political prisoners at John Vorster Square.

 

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