A groundbreaking court ruling in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, has overturned a 1967 inquest conclusion, revealing that Albert Luthuli, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning anti-apartheid leader, was beaten to death rather than killed in a train accident. The judgment, delivered on Thursday, comes after more than 50 years of suspicion that Luthuli was murdered by apartheid police due to his leadership in the African National Congress (ANC), which opposed the white minority rule system. The South African government reopened the inquest in April as part of a broader effort to investigate high-profile apartheid-era killings allegedly concealed by authorities. The original 1967 inquest had ruled Luthuli’s death accidental, a finding widely doubted given the apartheid government’s history of covering up political assassinations. The new inquest judge concluded that Luthuli died from head injuries consistent with an assault, implicating the notorious Special Branch police unit and railway company employees. The ANC hailed the ruling as a step toward justice and dignity for Luthuli’s memory and all apartheid victims. Luthuli, ANC president from 1952 until his death, was the first African awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his nonviolent resistance to apartheid. This ruling is part of a series of inquests into apartheid-era deaths, including that of Steve Biko, ordered by President Cyril Ramaphosa amid criticism of delayed investigations.
New inquest rules South African Nobel laureate Albert Luthuli was beaten to death in 1967
