Pretoria- The ICD arrested 3 policemen for torturing a suspect to death in Harburg, KwaZulu-Natal. The incident happened in June 2011. It was alleged that suspects were remanded back to the police cells from court and that these suspects had smuggled tobacco into the cells. Police officers from the CSC who were conducting cell visits detected that the detainees had been smoking so they searched the cells. The police officers wanted to find out who had smuggled the tobacco so they started assaulting the detainees in an office where it is alleged that the officers used a plastic bag to suffocate the detainees to extract the information. One of the detainees died.
The scene was attended by an ICD investigator, who managed to find the bag allegedly used by the policemen. The post mortem was attended and it was found that the deceased was murdered.
The arrest was made on 8 July 2011 and the suspects, W/O SC Ngcobo, Constables MF Xaba and SG Ntuli, appeared in court on charges of murder, assault GBH and defeating the ends of justice. They were all released on R5000.00 bail each on condition that they do not interfere with witnesses and that they hand in their fire-arms to the station. The case has been postponed to the 08 August 2011 for legal representation.