Four former security policemen who interrogated Steve Biko on the day he died face prosecution for murder, or culpable homicide, more than 20 years after his death, Patrick Laurence writes from Johannesburg.
They had sought amnesty for their role in his death on September 12th, 1977, but have had their applications refused by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The denial of amnesty to the four - Mr Harold Synman, Mr Daniel Siebert, Mr Rubin Marx and Mr Jacobus Beneke - comes after the refusal of amnesty last year to one of their co-interrogators, Gideon Niewoudt, who already faces possible imprisonment for the murder of black activists.
The Director of Prosecutions in the Eastern Cape, where Biko died, is studying he record of the amnesty hearing to see whether there is new evidence to justify prosecution of the men.
Biko, a detainee at the time of his death, died after sustaining injuries during an interrogation session at the security police headquarters in Port Elizabeth.
The manner of his death played a pivotal role in provoking anger and indignation at his loss to South Africa: he was chained to a steel door, denied proper medical treatment and, later, driven naked and unconscious in the back of a police vehicle from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria, about 800 km.
The TRC gave the reasons for its decision in a lengthy statement which summarised the accounts by all four policemen of the interrogation session which resulted in Biko's fatal injury. A common theme runs through their accounts: Biko sustained a head injury during a struggle initiated by his aggressive attitude and attempt to punch Mr Siebert.
The TRC concludes that the police version is "so improbable and so contradictory that it has to be rejected as false".