Injuries possible prior to death fall

A specialist pathologist yesterday told the High Court in Pretoria that anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, pictured, may have suffered extensive injury to his skull prior to his death in October 1971.

Dr Shakeera Holland was testifying during the third day of the second phase of the reopened Timol inquest. She said, according to her findings, Timol had a skull injury which might have been caused by a blunt object, such as a hammer or an iron rod.

“This fracture seems unrelated to the site of impact and is not associated with the linear base of skull fractures. Isolated depressed skull fractures are not commonly seen in falls from heights,” said the pathologist.

Authorities at the time claimed Timol committed suicide by jumping out of a window on the 10th floor of the infamous John Vorster Square, renamed the Johannesburg Central Police Station.

Holland said Timol had multiple injuries, which might have been inflicted four to six days before his death. “There were a number or wounds which couldn’t be attributed to the fall from a height. There are multiple well-defined bruises, which are not consistent with a fall from a height.”

She listed facial fractures that appeared to be isolated and not directly associated with skull fractures.

Timol suffered a fracture of the nasal bone, fracture of the right upper jaw between the upper lateral incisor and the canine, fracture of the left upper jaw posterior to the upper left wisdom tooth, and fracture of the left lower jaw.

The activist had been arrested with friend Salim Essop in 1971 after a car in which they were travelling was stopped by police. Banned South African Communist Party and ANC literature was found in the car.

Timol’s family have always maintained police murdered him. They have consistently rejected the claim that Timol committed suicide.

The inquest, brought by his family, aims to overturn a June 1972 ruling by Magistrate JL de Villiers, which concluded that Timol committed suicide. – ANA

Isolated depressed skull fractures are not commonly seen in falls from heights Dr Shakeera Holland Specialist pathologist