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PICS: Ahmed Timol murder accused Joao Rodrigues arrives in court

Joao Jan Rodrigues, the 79-year-old former security branch police sergeant accused of being involved in the murder of Ahmed Timol, has arrived at the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Monday. 

He is expected to appear on charges of murder and defeating the ends of justice. 

Read: Timol's family 'cautiously optimistic' ahead of former police sergeant's court appearance

Almost 46 years since his death, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria last year found that Timol, just as his family had always maintained, died at the hands of apartheid security branch police while in detention.


Former security branch police sergeant Joao Jan Rodrigues ahead of his court appearance. (Supplied, Oryx)

Judge Billy Mothle found that Timol did not meet his death because he committed suicide but that he "died as a result of having been pushed to fall, an act which was committed by members of the security branch with dolus eventualis as a form of intent, and prima facie amounting to murder".

Mothle said three witnesses contradicted Rodrigues' version of events around Timol's death.

Read more: Officer in Ahmed Timol case to appear in court on a charge of murder

He said members of the security branch who were interrogating Timol on that day were collectively responsible for his death.

"Rodrigues placed himself on the scene as a party to the cover-up to conceal the truth," and thus became an accessory to murder, he said at the time. 


(Supplied, Oryx)


(Supplied, Oryx)

(Supplied, Oryx)

*This story has been amended to reflect the correct age of Rodrigues 

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