South Africa court says anti-apartheid activist was murdered

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - A South African court has found that an anti-apartheid activist who died in 1971 was tortured and killed by police, and did not kill himself by jumping from a 10th-floor window as authorities said at the time.

An inquest found that Ahmed Timol, a South African Communist Party member, was murdered after his arrest and transfer to what was then called John Vorster Square. The Johannesburg police station was where opponents of white minority rule were often held without trial and tortured.

Judge Billy Mothle says evidence suggests Timol was pushed out of a window. Mothle says two former police officers should be investigated, one for allegedly misleading the court and another for alleged perjury.

Activists say they hope the ruling leads to the examination of other apartheid-era deaths.