POLICE ‘MURDER’ – NEW EVIDENCE

The campaign by the Times Sunday to prove that police killed an unarmed suspect in cold blood is gaining ground.

The newspaper reported this week (11 November 22007) that a post-mortem examination on Ntokozo Ngozo revealed that the police had lied in their account of the shooting when they said Ngozo was armed and trying to escape from them.

The Times Sunday says, ‘The post-mortem report reveals that police shot the suspect within a range of 35cm twice using a low velocity firearm like a 9mm Parabellum.’

One bullet had been shot into his the left thigh and two others into his body. One went into his chest piercing his left lung heart and killing him. Another shot went through the abdomen and hit his kidney.

An independent pathologist who was commissioned by the human rights group Amnesty International conducted the post-mortem.

The post-mortem report also stated that Ngozo was not wearing a shirt at the time of the death. The Times Sunday reports that Ngozo was wearing a shirt when he was found dead ‘suggesting that it was put on after he was shot.’

The significance of the post-mortem findings is that they contradict the report of the police after the shooting had taken place on 11 August 2007.

According to the Times Sunday, the police first alleged that Ngozo had tried to shoot at them; then the police said he was shot trying to escape from them; and then they said they had to shoot Ngozo because they could not be sure if he was armed and would attack them.

The post-mortem report identifies that the police were at close range (35cm) when they shot him and that two shots were fired at close range after Ngozo had already been hit in the thigh. This evidence contradicts the police statements that Ngozo was trying to escape from them and that Ngozo may have been armed.

In a previous report the Times Sunday quoted witnesses saying that police had shot Ngozo in the thigh and police continued to shoot him while he was crying for help, begging them not to kill him.

Swazi police have declined to comment on the post-mortem report.