High court reopens Imam Abdullah Haron inquest 53 years after his death in police custody

The officers who interrogated him, all of whom have since died, claimed Haron sustained the injuries when he fell down a staircase at the then Caledon police station, now called Cape Town central police station. The court heard that while in detention, Haron had smuggled out a message on a piece of toilet paper to “Canon Collins”. The message read: “If you hear that I have died in prison by accident, you will know that it will not have been an accident”.

The first inquest into Haron’s death was held in 1970 but state advocate Lifa Matyobeni dismissed it as a “fraud”. “We will submit that a massive and deliberate fraud was perpetrated by the state machinery in the 1970 inquest and as such, it demands justice prevails,” the Matyobeni. “What we will attempt to show is the inconsistency in the version provided by the state branch police who were the only witnesses called to testify about the unaccounted injuries to Mr Haron’s body.”

Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

High court reopens Imam Abdullah Haron inquest 53 years after his death in police custodyThe high court re-opened the inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Imam Abdullah Haron in police cells on Monday.
Source: TimesLIVE - 🏆 28. / 59 Read more »

Abdullah Haron: Inquest reopened 50 years after death in custodyThe inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist, Imam Abdullah Haron, who died in police custody in 1969, was reopened in the Western Cape High Court yesterday.
Source: CapeTownEtc - 🏆 17. / 63 Read more »

Imam Haron inquest: Family hoping for new finding so that they can have closureA Western Cape High Court inquest into the imam's death, while he was incarcerated in 1969, started on Monday.
Source: ewnupdates - 🏆 30. / 53 Read more »