Johannes Hendrik Burger, the final dwelling policeman from the time of Imam Abdullah Haron’s detention, opened up a bit extra on his second day of cross-examination. However, the household’s authorized representatives mentioned they intend to make a number of damning submissions about his testimony within the reopened inquest and his actions in September 1969.
READ: As it occurred: Imam Haron Inquest – Day 7
‘EVASIVE EVIDENCE’ AT HARON INQUEST
Burger first took the stand for the NPA on Monday, 14 November – the sixth day of the inquest. In his testimony, he insisted that the primary time he grew to become conscious members of the apartheid safety department abused political detainees was in September 2020.
In 2020, he gave his assertion for this inquest to the investigating officer of the Haron chilly case – Lieutenant-Colonel Deon Peterson – who confirmed the witness illustrations of the Imam’s 27 bruises and one fractured rib.
Burger was a 25-year-old constable when Haron was discovered useless in his Maitland cell on 27 September 1969 and would stay within the police pressure till 1997. He retired with the rank of captain and gained many medals in his profession, together with one for combatting terrorism.
READ: Imam Haron Inquest: Apartheid-era cop says he didn’t know the safety department tortured folks
Before he wrapped up his cross-examination of the witness, Advocate Howard Varney defined that the household’s authorized representatives are required to make submissions to the courtroom to assist Judge Daniel Thulare attain his findings. “…and I should advise you that this is an inquest and not a criminal trial – there’s not going to be any convictions issued.”
Varney mentioned they’ll submit that Burger was conscious of the safety department’s dangerous popularity and that he would have been conscious they abused detainees and his claims about solely studying this in September 2020 can’t be accepted.
“We will also submit that your evidence that you were unaware that the security branch was a feared and elite unit within the former South African police was evasive evidence.
“We will also submit on the probabilities, you and your colleagues in the Maitland Police Station in those last two weeks would have been aware that the Imam had been abused by the security branch, particularly after the three-day extraction by the security branch post-19 September.
“And that you would have been aware that the pain and immobilization he was experiencing at that time was because of the abusive treatment he had received at the security branch,” mentioned Varney.
THE JUDGE WANTED TO KNOW IF WITNESS REMEMBERS IMAM HARON BEING IN PAIN
At this level, Advocate Varney stood down and Judge Thulare prodded the 78-year-old with just a few questions of his personal. Thulare mentioned his questions had been meant to provide the witness a good alternative to deal with considerations that had arisen from his testimony.
First, he requested Burger if there have been nonetheless any fears about revealing details about the apartheid years and the witness mentioned no and added that his testimony has been a weight off his again.
In his testimony, Burger famous the Imam’s situation worsened significantly earlier than his demise. He described how the deceased struggled with strolling and dragged his toes.
Judge Thulare mentioned what Burger described as deterioration was a person in ache, based on the medical proof heard by the courtroom on earlier days. He went additional and defined the Imam’s numerous accidents to the witness and pointed to them on the post-mortem fashions of the deceased’s physique in courtroom.
The witness mentioned he can’t perceive how the medical doctors of the time didn’t choose up on Imam Haron’s accidents. Judge Thulare pointedly mentioned, “That is the issue; the police did not take him to the doctor.”
“You opened [his cell], he is having difficulty breathing, pain; he has got sore muscles – you saw nothing?”
Burger mentioned his earlier description of Haron’s struggles with strolling clearly depicted a person who should have been in ache and he instructed that maybe he wasn’t expressing himself accurately.
“It is the first time I hear you say anything about pain. Did he appear to be a man in pain because this is exactly what I am trying to establish from you,” mentioned Judge Thulare.
The witness mentioned Imam Haron by no means talked about being in ache every time he requested him what was mistaken and Judge Thulare reminded him that in his 1969 affidavit he wrote that the “deceased did not have complaints and appeared to be in good health.”
After the questions had been put to Burger by the Judge, Advocate Varney added extra submissions to the courtroom.
He instructed that on the premise of chances, the witness and his colleagues at Maitland police station had been nicely conscious Imam Haron was sick and in ache they usually had been negligent in not offering him with medical consideration.
“Mr Burger, if it had merely been a question of negligence then the crime arising is known as culpable homicide but if it was an intentional act to keep the doctor away from medical attention – knowing his state of health, knowing him to be sick and in pain – then they would have been aware and anticipated that his health would decline and that he may die. That then may convert the crime in question to murder,” mentioned Varney.
Throughout these submissions, the witness insisted he stood by the testimony he gave throughout the inquest.
Burger additionally mentioned he’s the one one nonetheless alive and it’s now straightforward to pile the blame on him. On not less than two events throughout his cross-examination, the household’s authorized representatives advised the witness they might have most popular to have spoken to his superiors on the time however it’s unimaginable.
READ: Letters on a biscuit field: How messages had been smuggled from Imam Haron’s jail cell
TORTURE WAS UBIQUITOUS
Other witnesses on Day 8 of the Imam Haron inquest included a psychoanalyst, Diane Sandler, and a former Robben Island prisoner, Robert Wilcox.
Sandler co-authored the guide Detention and Torture in South Africa, which was printed in 1987. She mentioned it was the primary systemic research of torture of political detainees.
In the analysis for the guide, 158 detainees’ experiences had been recorded. The information revealed that torture was ubiquitous and a staple of political detention within the apartheid years.
The most typical type of torture was bodily assault. In Cape Town, greater than a 3rd of the political detainees named Sergeant Spyker van Wyk as their torturer – he’s the one believed to be Imam Haron’s chief abuser.
Robert Wilcox, who was detained by the safety department in Cape Town for months earlier than he was taken to Pietermaritzburg for trial in 1971, gave a graphic account of the abuse he suffered by the hands of the safety department on the instruction of van Wyk.
Wilcox spent six years imprisoned on Robben Island. One of the recollections that stood out for him from his time on the island was when prisoners shared tales of their torture. He mentioned prisoners unanimously agreed that they might quite spend 5 years on Robben Island than 5 months in solitary confinement below the safety department.
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