Caiphus Nyoka murder: High Court finds 2 apartheid police officers guilty

The Johannesburg High Court has found two of the three apartheid police officers charged with the murder of student leader Caiphus Nyoka guilty of the crime.

Apartheid Major Leon van den Berg and sergeants Abraham Engelbrecht and Pieter Stander have been standing trial for the 1987 murder.

But the court has acquitted van den Berg, finding that the State failed to prove its case against him beyond a reasonable doubt.

Nyoka, who was a student leader, was murdered in his Daveyton home in 1987.

As Judge Mohammed Ismail handed down a detailed judgment, the accused sat closely next to each other while Sergeants Abraham Engelbrecht and Pieter Stander regularly hung their heads.

ALSO READ: Court hears that ex-apartheid officers charged with Caiphus Nyoka's murder intended to kill him

Ismail acquitted Major Leon van den Berg, whom the state accused of ordering the raid.

But the court has found that Engelbrecht and Stander were behind the brutal murder of 23-year-old Nyoka.

While according to the law, the bail of both men must expire now that they have been convicted, they have brought a new bail application, which the court must now consider

Judge Ismail handed down the judgment on Tuesday.