NPA drops charges against Ahmed Timol officers

The NPA does not intend to pursue charges against two apartheid-era Security Branch police officers, Seth Sons and Neville Els, who are implicated in the murder of Ahmed Timol. In 2017, Judge Billy Mothle found the activist had been murdered and recommended the NPA probe apartheid-era police officer Joao Roderigues' role in his death. Mothle also ruled Sons and Els should be charged for perjury. NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane told News24 it had decided not to prosecute as the state must prove the evidence they gave was intentionally false. ‘Both Els and Sons gave three standard answers regarding their knowledge of the assault of detainees – that they were not aware of the assaults on detainees, that they can't remember or that they read about them in newspapers,’ she said. Mjonondwane added: Factors such as the passage of time – 46 years at the time of their evidence – (and) their advanced ages – 80 and 82 years – places the state in a difficult position to prove that they are deliberately lying. Both Messrs Els and Sons did not testify in the original inquest proceedings in June 1972 or made statements then, and thus had to rely on their memories.’ Mjonondwane said there was ‘also a technicality’ in that Sons was not properly put under oath by a judge.

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