Maverick Citizen: Aggett Inquest: Aggett inquest postponed indefinitely after judge admitted to hospital By Ufrieda Ho
An unexpected interruption in the reopened inquest into Neil Aggett’s death in detention this week leaves proceedings in limbo. It comes just as legal groundwork looked set to pay off in actual charges against former security branch members.
By the end of last week, the Aggett family lawyers and the NPA indicated in court that they would seek to bring charges against Nicolaas Deetlefs, a warrant officer in the security branch in 1982 who testified for much of last week. The interruption in the inquest is a devastating blow for Jill Burger. Burger is Aggett’s older sister who has been in court every day with Stephen Aggett, one of her nephews by her older brother Michael, who died 10 years ago.
It also makes the lingering suspicion that capture of the justice system even in a time of democracy is a possibility. Questions remain about the existence of sticky webs of corruption and cover-ups among Delays have meant key suspects linked to torture, assault and deaths of political detainees, including in the Aggett case, have died – they’re handed a get-out-of-jail-free card and never have to come clean to anti-apartheid activists’ families who still need answers.
News of the indefinite postponement of the Aggett case has, however, come with two bits of welcome news this week. The reopened inquest into the death of Dr Hoosen Haffejee, who was killed in August 1977 in Durban, is set to get under way towards the end of April 2020. In the Timol matter, former security branch policeman Joao Rodrigues, who is fighting for a permanent stay of prosecution in connection with the murder of Timol, is due back in court on Friday.
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