Haron injuries sifted in fine detail by pathologist
THE reopened inquest into anti-apartheid Struggle activist Imam Abdullah Haron’s death yesterday heard detailed evidence about the probabilities of whether the injuries listed in the post-mortem report were caused by his alleged fall down the stairs of the Caledon Square police station, now Cape Town Central police station.
Consultant forensic pathologist Dr Tumi Molefe cast doubt on the thoroughness of the post-mortem report written by pioneering forensic pathologist Professor Theodor Schwär following Imam Haron’s 1969 death in police custody.
Dr Molefe said Schwär, who died in 2019, is regarded as an early icon in the field of forensic pathology and even wrote a book in which he set the highest standards for pathologists doing post-mortems of people who had died in police custody.
Dr Molefe, who was giving evidence at the inquest, said: “Judging Schwär by his own standards, his post-mortem of Imam Haron was lacking.”
Asked by Judge Daniel Thulare to explain what she meant by this, Dr Molefe said Schwär’s description of wounds was inadequate as he failed to properly describe the exact nature of the majority of bruises found on the body.
“Additionally, this was a death in custody and therefore there should have been meticulous documentation of negative findings with associated photography. Proper documentation would have allowed for better insight.”
Dr Molefe, who is a specialist forensic pathologist employed by the province and stationed at the UCT medical school, wrote her report on the 1969 post-mortem in 2019 after being invited to research and review it on a pro bono basis by attorneys from Webber Wentzel acting on behalf of the Haron family.
The original post-mortem by Schwär was carried out at the police mortuary in Salt River. Schwär found that the actual cause of death was a “mikrokardiale ischaemia”, which is reduced flow of blood to the heart muscle.
In his opinion, this was brought on by the emotional situation that Imam Haron was in while in custody.
Schwär also wrote that because of bruises on the legs and relatively few on the arms, he could only say it was possible that the bruises were caused by Imam Haron’s alleged fall.
However, Dr Molefe said in her opinion it was impossible that all the bruises could have been caused by falling down the stairs.
She said the allegation that he fell down the stairs, as provided by security branch police officers involved in the Imam Haron case, Johannes “Spyker” van Wyk and Dirk Genis, was “highly improbable”.
Due to the unnatural cause of death, an inquest presided over by Magistrate JSP Kuhn was held in 1970.
At the hearing, pathologist Dr Percy Helman testified that Haron would have been in severe pain due to his injuries.
Helman, who inspected the flight of stairs, stated that the fall could not account for all the bruises on the body.
The inquest continues.