(MENAFN) A top judicial body in South Africa on Thursday determined that Nobel Prize winner Inkosi Albert Luthuli was fatally assaulted by Apartheid-era police, acting in collaboration with personnel from the South African Railway Company.

The Pietermaritzburg High Court also annulled the 1967 inquest, which had previously concluded that Luthuli died after being struck by a freight train.

In delivering the ruling, Judge Nompumelelo Radebe stated that the evidence presented during the reopened inquest contradicted the conclusions of the original 1967 investigation.

“The finding the ruling of the Magistrate CI Boswell, dated September 1967 at the Stanger Magistrates Court, is set aside. As to the cause and likely cause of death, it is found that the deceased died as a result of a fractured skull, cerebral haemorrhage and concussion of the brain associated with assault.”

Judge Radebe further determined that a Durban-based physician, who had traveled to Stanger to attend to the gravely injured Luthuli in July 1967, “finished him off” rather than providing life-saving care.

Instead of being urgently transported to King Edward Hospital in Durban after being found unconscious, Luthuli was taken to the inadequately equipped Stanger Hospital for treatment of his head and bodily injuries.

Due to the shortage of medical staff capable of addressing the severity of his condition, Luthuli endured several hours at Stanger Hospital without proper attention. Over four hours later, a neurosurgeon from King Edward and Wentworth hospitals, Dr Mauritius J. Joubert, finally arrived at Stanger Hospital.

Judge Radebe sharply criticized the neglectful behavior of both the Stanger Hospital personnel and Dr Joubert. “He (Dr Joubert) came to the Stanger Hospital to finish him off,” Judge Radebe stated in isiZulu while delivering her judgment, emphasizing that this reflected her personal opinion.

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