South Africa to reopen Steve Biko inquest

South African prosecutors said, connected Wednesday, they volition reopen an inquest into the decease of salient anti-apartheid activistic Steve Biko. This is coming astir 50 years aft helium died successful constabulary custody.

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Biko, laminitis of South Africa’s Black Consciousness Movement, died successful a situation compartment successful 1977 aged conscionable 30. He had been beaten into a coma by constabulary who had arrested him astir a period earlier.

The decease sparked outrage crossed the satellite and helium became an planetary awesome of the conflict against the race-based apartheid strategy that denied South Africa’s achromatic bulk governmental and economical rights.

“The main extremity of reopening the inquest is to laic earlier the tribunal grounds that volition alteration the tribunal to marque a finding… arsenic to whether the decease was brought astir by immoderate act, oregon omission, which prima facie involves oregon amounts, to an offence connected the portion of immoderate person,” the National Prosecuting Authority, NPA, said.

The lawsuit volition beryllium reopened connected the 48th day of Biko’s decease connected September 12.

A 1977 inquest accepted the constabulary relationship that Biko sustained injuries erstwhile helium deed his caput against the wall. No 1 was prosecuted for the death.

But successful 1997, erstwhile constabulary officers implicated successful the lawsuit admitted assaulting the activistic during hearings by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, TRC, into atrocities committed during the apartheid era.

The TRC refused to assistance amnesty to the officers. It ruled that they lied successful their grounds and failed to beryllium a governmental motive for sidesplitting Biko.

Biko’s communicative inspired Peter Gabriel’s anthem “Biko”, and aboriginal the Richard Attenborough movie ‘Cry Freedom’.

Vanguard News

The station South Africa to reopen Steve Biko inquest appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.