Autopsy ordered to determine cause of Hanekom’s death

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Autopsy ordered to determine cause of Hanekom’s death

3:50 CAT | 28 Jan 2019

In file CoM

The provincial attorney’s office in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado has ordered an autopsy of Andre Hanekom, the South African businessman who died in police custody in the provincial capital, Pemba, on Wednesday morning.

“Taking into account that he lost his life while he was a suspect and under detention, and in accordance with the law, we have officially requested the report of the forensic medicine services at the hospital to ascertain the real causes of his death”, said the spokesperson for the Attorney’s office, Armando Wilson, at a Pemba press conference on Tuesday.

According to a report in the independent daily “O Pais”, Wilson said his office was unaware of Hanekom’s state of health, and was therefore surprised at the news of his death. An investigation could be opened if the autopsy showed that he had not died from natural causes.
The public prosecutor’s office accused Hanekom of paying members of the terrorist group active in the northern districts of Cabo Delgado a monthly wage of 10,000 meticais (about 164 US dollars). His wife, Frances, regarded such accusations as ludicrous.

If Hanekom was key to terrorist finance and logistics, one might have expected a decline in terrorist activities after his arrest in August. But in fact there has been a recent upsurge in the activities of the insurgent group.

The indictment against him claims that the Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) discovered in Hanekom’s house gunpowder, machetes, bows, arrows and rockets. These weapons were regarded as sufficient proof of his involved in the finance, logistics and coordination of the attacks.

But the 61 year old Hanekom, who had lived in Cabo Delgado for 26 years, owned a beachfront boatyard in the town of Palma, and many of the items regarded as suspicious by SERNIC are normal tools. There would be nothing surprising in finding machetes in a boat yard. Frances Hanekom said that other items, such as the bow and arrows were of merely artistic significance.

She believed the charges against her husband had been fabricated as an excuse to seize his property in Palma. Since dead men cannot stand trial, it will prove difficult for the Hanekom family to clear his name.

“How dare they? Are they stupid? Everybody knows that he’s not involved with that”, exclaimed the grieving widow, cited in the South African publication, EWN. “This is a cooked up fabrication. Everybody must know it because he is so well known.”

The South African government is concerned at the unexplained death of one of its citizens, while in Mozambican police custody. The South African Foreign Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, has instructed the South African High Commissioner to Mozambique, Mandisi Mpalhwa, to coordinate with the Mozambican authorities in establishing the cause of death.

Source: AIM