Calls to reopen Station Strangler cases

CRIME fighters are calling on the State to reopen the investigations into the 21 unsolved cases of the Station Strangler and put together a task team on the mystery.

The South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC’s) Reverend Chris Nissen has also suggested that families of victims be given the opportunity to sit at a round table with Norman “Afzal “Simons, the man dubbed The Station Strangler, to perhaps gain answers and closure on whether he was responsible for more than one killing.

Last week prison rights activists, crime fighters and the SAHRC called for Simons to be released on parole after 28 years behind bars.

They said he must come clean on whether he was involved in the 21 unsolved cases.

Crime fighter and activist Michael Jacobs has called on the State to reopen the cold cases.

“I am calling on all of those 21 unsolved cases, which must be reopened as you cannot claim that the person who is in custody for almost more than three decades, is the Station Strangler and put that into people’s minds,” he said.

“In order for our communities to find some form of closure, for the victims and the families, the State needs to reopen those cases.

“They must put together a task team that will investigate these cases, which have been lying dormant since the arrest of Norman Afzal, like everything was solved.”

Jacobs previously indicated that no DNA found at the various crime scenes could be linked to Simons and said the identity parade he was part of was flawed.

Nissen told Weekend Argus last week that the SAHRC believed Simons had paid for the crime he had committed and called for him to be granted parole and to reveal any knowledge he had about the unsolved cases.

Weekend Argus also approached the Department of Justice and the National Prosecuting Authority about whether they would be considering revisiting the cold cases and if a task team would be formed, but they have yet to respond.

Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Candice Van Reenen

previously said the department would not be commenting about Simons’ parole status.

The Station Strangler became a household name in South Africa after the bodies of 22 young boys, some of whom were never identified, were found in various graves between 1986 and 1994.

The bodies were all found in the same position, face down, in shallow graves with their hands tied behind their backs and their pants tied around their necks.

The victims were strangled and sodomised.