Eight police officers are expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday for the alleged torture and murder of a suspect in custody.
They were arrested on Monday.
It is alleged that the police officers had booked out three suspects from the Lenasia police station, in the south of Johannesburg and had taken them to the Protea police station in Soweto.
During interrogation at the Protea police station, one of the suspects had a seizure and collapsed.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) says the scene was cleared and the remaining two suspects were returned to the Lenasia police station.
Ipid spokesperson, Ndileka Cola, says they will enlist the services of an independent pathologist to determine the cause of death of the suspect.
“They are going to appear at the Protea Magistrates’ Court. They are facing charges of murder, defeating the ends of justice, torture as well as being in contravention of Section 29 and Section 33 of the Ipid Act that compels them to notify the directorate immediately they become aware of any sort of matter that has to be investigated by Ipid.
“They have failed to do that. Ipid is getting services of the independent pathologist because we need to ascertain what transpired in that particular crime scene. Ipid was called four hours later and the crime scene was not secure,” explains Cola.
In the video below, IPID elaborate on the police arrest:
