Eight people, including Timol, died while in custody in the building. Timol, a member of the South African Communist Party, was arrested at a police roadblock on Oct. 22, 1971. A 1972 inquest into Timol's death upheld the police assertion that he was not tortured during his detention but jumped to his death to avoid a long prison sentence, among other reasons. Inconsistencies in Rodrigues' story and crucial aspects of Timol's death cast doubt on that version of events, the family's counsel argued. Judge Billy Mothle now will make a recommendation to state prosecutors whether a criminal case should be opened into Timol's death, a decision that could set an important precedent for other apartheid-era cases of political prisoners' deaths during detention.

Source: ABC News August 27, 2017 09:41 UTC