NPA welcomes sentencing of Johan Marais for 1987 murder of Caiphus Nyoka
The NPA said that Thursday’s sentencing of killer apartheid cop, Johan Marais, was the first of its kind to be handed down by a superior court.
Johan Marais, former apartheid police officer who pleaded guilty to the 1987 murder of COSAS member, Caiphus Nyoka. Marais is being sentenced today at the Pretoria High Court. Picture: Thabiso Goba/ EWN.
JOHANNESBURG - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said that Thursday’s sentencing of killer apartheid cop, Johan Marais, was the first of its kind to be handed down by a superior court.
The NPA’s Truth and Reconciliation Unit was established to prosecute apartheid-era crimes stemming from the TRC.
On Thursday, the Pretoria High Court sentenced 66-year-old Marais to 15 years imprisonment for the murder of student activist, Caiphus Nyoka.
READ: Caiphus Nyoka's family relieved one of his killers finally imprisoned
On the 24th of August in 1987, Marais and his police colleagues fatally shot Nyoka multiple times at his Daveyton home.
NPA Gauteng spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana has welcomed the sentencing.
"This is the first sentence that has been handed down at the high court in relation to TRC matters, in the hope that this sentence will set a precedent for all other cases to come that are related to TRC cases."