A forensic pathologist has told an inquest into the death of struggle cleric, Imam Abdullah Haron, that she’s identified several procedural irregularities in Haron’s post-mortem report in 1970.
The reopened inquest is continuing at the High Court in Cape Town.
Dr Itumeleng Molefe says the chronology of events leading up to Haron’s death does not make sense.
Haron was arrested in May 1969 and detained in Cape Town. He was found dead in his cell at the Maitland Police Station after 123 days in detention.
Findings of the first inquest in 1970 show that the cause of death could be attributed to injuries sustained during an alleged fall and a heart condition.
However, Molefe says the injuries found on his body during the post-mortem report are not consistent with the version of events surrounding Haron’s death that was submitted by the apartheid security branch police.
“There is no reason to believe that any of those bruises indicate trauma that was inflicted somewhere else, that just happened to appear somewhere else on the body. The bruises as we see them here represent direct trauma to the areas where we actually see them.”
Possible assault
Molefe says she believes Haron’s complaints about the pain and suffering he was in were underreported and underestimated.
She says the trauma he suffered could have been caused by assault while he was being detained.
“These bruises, the red bruises that are on the legs and the haematoma that were found on the lower back, that again my lord, we said could have been caused by assault with, if I were to think of an instrument, I would think a baton.”
The court earlier heard from an aeronautical engineer that injuries sustained by the Imam reflected in the post-mortem report are inconsistent with the version of a fall down a flight of stairs given by the apartheid era security branch of the police at the time.
Meanwhile, Haron’s son, Muhammed Haron, says the proceedings of the reopened inquest continues to be a traumatic experience because nothing has been resolved.
He says the family has, to a certain degree, lost faith in the justice system.
Haron elaborates in the video below:
