Apartheid-era policeman Joao Rodrigues, charged with the murder of Ahmed Timol dies.

“He died last night. He had health issues. He was 82 years old. He was no longer a young man,” said attorney Ben Minnaar.

He said Rodrigues had spent time in hospital.

“Unfortunately he took a turn for the worse. He was discharged from hospital and was recuperating at home.”

Minnaar said as a result of Rodrigues’ death, the criminal case cannot proceed.

“There is a Constitutional Court matter that will possibly proceed,” Minnaar said.

He was referring to an application Rodrigues made to the Constitutional Court in July.

Rodrigues sought to appeal against a decision made by the Supreme Court of Appeal  which dismissed his appeal against an order made by the full bench of the high court in Pretoria in 2019 that he was not entitled to a permanent stay of prosecution.

Timol died as a result of injuries sustained when he fell from the 10th floor of the offices of the Security Branch at Johannesburg’s John Vorster Square police station on October 27 1971.

An inquest held in 1972 concluded Timol had committed suicide. However, the inquest into his death was reopened in 2017 and judge Billy Mothle ruled in October 2018 that Timol was killed.

The reopened inquest also found Rodrigues, in his own version, participated in the cover-up to conceal the crime of murder as an accessory after the fact of the murder.

The inquest said Rodrigues went on to commit perjury by presenting contradictory evidence before the 1972 and 2017 inquests.