Former Minister in the presidency Essop Pahad told the North Gauteng High Court on Tuesday he does not believe that anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol committed suicide as an earlier inquest had concluded.

Pahad said Timol was Muslim and Islam prohibits suicide by its adherence.

“Ahmed was Muslim. It is my understanding that if Muslim people commit suicide they cannot be buried in a Muslim burial ground. In my view, Ahmed would not have committed suicide for this reason, amongst others.”

Pahad said he was friends with Timol from an early age and their friendship grew stronger while Timol was studying to be a teacher.

Timol was arrested with his friend Dr Salim Essop in 1971 after a car they were travelling in was stopped by apartheid police. Banned South African Communist Party (SACP) and African National Congress literature was found in the car.

His death was ruled as suicide by jumping out of the 10th floor of the infamous John Vorster Square police station, which is now the Johannesburg Central police station.

Timol’s family believes that he was killed by apartheid police and was never suicidal.

The inquest, brought by Timol’s family, aims to overturn a June 1972 ruling by magistrate JL de Villiers that Timol had committed suicide.

The station gained infamy during the apartheid years for the torture and deaths of scores of activists, who opposed the regime.

Pahad said he stayed with Timol in London and was recruited into the underground unit by Dr Yusuf Dadoo. When Timol came back to South Africa he was fully aware of the consequences which might suffer if he was arrested.

“I was the last person to talk to him before he left our flat….I discussed with him what would happen if he got arrested. We agreed that there was a likelihood that he may get arrested as the security  branch were infiltrating our units. We discussed how he should respond.”

During his testimony, Pahad disputed claims that SACP had a policy which encouraged members to commit suicide if they had been arrested and tortured.

“There was never any such protocol nor was any such instruction issued. It was a common understanding in the movement that there is a limit to human endurance.”

Earlier, Professor Kenneth Boffard who studied the postmortem report which was conducted on Timol and saw pictures of his body, said some of the injuries he had sustained were not caused by the fall.

The trauma surgeon further told the court that he was of the view that when police moved Timol’s body, the movement might have hastened his death.

“Any sort of movement to a critically injured person increases damage particularly to the spine, I would have recommended that the person shouldn’t be moved because it is fatal,” he said.

Boffard said Timol had a fracture at the base of the skull which suggests that his brain would have been damaged.

The matter was adjourned to Wednesday.