Ahmed Timol
South African revolutionary · South Africa · On the map · Activists · Lived 1941 to 1971 · aged 29
Ahmed Timol was an anti-apartheid activist in the underground South African Communist Party. He died at the age of 29 from injuries sustained when he fell from the top floor of John Vorster Square police station in Johannesburg.
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About this person
Police claimed, and an official inquest confirmed, that Timol had committed suicide by jumping out the window. The claim was widely disbelieved in anti-apartheid circles, and in the movement Timol's death became symbolic of the broader phenomenon of deaths in police custody, as well as of the abuses and dishonesty of the apartheid state.
