‘Assault’ of cop left off court roll
BACKING DOWN: NO CHARGES LAID AGAINST AMBASSADOR’S DAUGHTER
Seven people at court say police assaulted them during fracas in Sunnyside.
After waiting several hours to appear before a court on charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, Thandiswa Losi, who went public on social media claiming she was a victim of police brutality at the weekend, was sent home, with the matter left off the court roll.
Losi and six others waited at the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning after being detained in the early hours of Sunday morning at the Sunnyside police station and being released nine hours later.
“The prosecutor told us that there are no charges against us so we can go home, but at the same time he says it’s still being investigated. I don’t understand what this actually means,” said Losi.
Losi claimed she was assaulted by police officers when she tried to take cellphone footage of what she described as an horrific incident involving police dragging a girl by the neck and assaulting her outside a restaurant in Sunnyside.
“They arrested my boyfriend as well because he kept asking why they were arresting me. When we got to the station, they told me to show them what I had recorded and they would let me go, but I refused.”
Several other people were also taken into custody.
Sporting a slightly bruised eye, Thabiso Mahlanga, also in court yesterday, told The Citizen he too had been assaulted by police.
“We were coming out of the place and there was a lot of commotion. Police in civilian clothes started assaulting me and I don’t even know what for. They choked me unconscious and I woke up in the back of a police van.”
He said police refused to open a case against them at the police station upon their release.
Losi has since opened a case of assault and verbal abuse against the police. She said she would also pursue a civil claim against the police. –