Page 11 - ARUBA TODAY

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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 4 February 2020

Riot police block a road to prevent protesting migrants
from reaching the island's main town of Mytilene during a
demonstration on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos,
Greece, on Monday, Feb. 3, 2020.
Associated Press
North Macedonia: This Aug. 22, 2017 file shows the upper floors of the Johannesburg Central Police Station, formerly

Migrants allegedly held known as John Foster Square, in Johannesburg, where medical doctor and former activist Neil
Aggett is alleged to have committed suicide while in police custody in 1982.
Associated Press
to ransom, abused South Africa probes apartheid-

SKOPJE, North Macedo- pending trial. If convicted,
nia (AP) — Authorities in they face up to eight years era death in police custody
North Macedonia have in prison. The Macedonian
filed criminal charges national, who owns the JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Be- he looked very weak and piled had been intercept-
against three Pakistanis house where the migrants ing hanged upside down stressed," said Chikane. ed by the apartheid police
and a Macedonian man were allegedly being held, until unconsciousness. Dai- Chikane, a prominent for- and led to the arrest of ac-
for allegedly imprisoning has also been charged ly beatings. Being forced mer anti-apartheid activist, tivists including Aggett.
a group of migrants and and is under house arrest. to do strenuous exercises described how he was tor- Aggett had been forced
holding them to ransom, North Macedonia is a key while naked. tured by police in the same to do strenuous exercises
officials said Monday. stage on the route many These are some of the police building, now known while naked, said another
The prosecutor's office said migrants take through the abuses perpetrated by as Johannesburg Central former prisoner Maurice
the men were believed to Balkans towards prosper- South Africa's police when Police Station. Smithers.
have behaved in a "partic- ous European countries af- activist Neil Aggett died in "They hanged me head Aggett's family has pursued
ularly degrading and cruel" ter illegally entering neigh- custody in 1982, accord- down. They put me on a the case for years.
manner to the 12 migrants, boring Greece — mostly on ing to witnesses who were broom and hanged me The inquest into Aggett's
including two minors, from small smuggling boats from jailed at the same time. with my head facing down death follows that of
India, Afghanistan and Turkey. On the Greek island The harrowing testimony until I lost consciousness. I Ahmed Timol, an anti-
Pakistan. of Lesbos, where most of came at the inquest into don't know how long that apartheid activist who also
They were allegedly de- the boats arrive, migrants the death of Aggett, a lasted. By the time I re- died in police detention.
tained for two weeks in clashed with police Mon- medical doctor and union gained consciousness, they That investigation deter-
October in a house in the day during a protest over activist, who police at the took me back to the cell, " mined that Timol did not
country's north. The four severe overcrowding at time said hanged himself. said Chikane. die of suicide, as the apart-
suspects were arrested last the local Moria camp and But his family and others Another former prisoner, heid regime had said, but
year but the arrests were delays in Greece's asylum say they believe he died Barbara Hogan, told how had been killed. Former
announced Monday. procedure. as a result of torture by au- a handcuffed Aggett gave policeman Joao Rodrigues
According to the prosecu- Riot police used tear gas thorities during apartheid, her a defiant clenched fist is set to go on trial for Timol's
tion, the suspects "caused to disperse several hun- South Africa's previous and salute as police officers led killing after a South African
(the migrants) to lose their dred protesters who had brutal regime of racial dis- him through a corridor. court last year declined his
sense of time, gave them planned to march from the crimination. Hogan, who later became application for a perma-
food only once a day and camp to the island capital Aggett, 28, was held by a Cabinet minister in South nent halt of his prosecution.
physically abused them." of Mytilene, about 5 kilo- police for 70 days without Africa's post-apartheid At least 67 detainees had
They also allegedly de- meters (3.1 miles) away. charges before he died. government, said she was died while in the custody
manded money from their No arrests or injuries were Fellow prisoners who saw subjected to daily abuse of the apartheid govern-
prisoners' relatives in other reported. him said he appeared to by police. ment's secret police, said
European countries and Also Monday, police in have been badly tortured. According to Hogan, she Jabulani Mlotshwa of the
threatened to kill the mi- Cyprus said they safely es- "He was struggling to walk. was handcuffed to a chair National Prosecuting Au-
grants when they asked to corted to the coastal town He was bending forward al- and repeatedly slapped thority.
be freed. of Larnaca a boat with 87 most like he was unable to in the face, among other "Those are the ones which
One migrant managed Syrian migrants that had pick his body up. It felt like punishments. She said had we know of. The grim reality
to contact relatives who left from the Turkish port of the time I myself had my attempted to kill herself to is that the count was prob-
reported the case to Ser- Mersin and was spotted hands chained against my end the abuse. ably higher," he said.
bian authorities, who in turn by radar off island nation's feet," said the Rev. Frank "I saw no way of getting Representing the Aggett
informed police in North southeastern tip. Chikane, an anti-apartheid out of the situation. I had family, advocate Howard
Macedonia, the prosecu- The 61 men, 10 women and activist who saw Aggett friends who had been tor- Varney said their aim is
tor's office said. 16 children were taken to a while both were held by tured badly," she said. to get the 1982 ruling that
The three Pakistanis were reception center outside police. Hogan said she regretted Aggett killed himself over-
arrested and are in custody the capital Nicosia.q "He was slow like a patient, that a report she had com- turned. q