South African Police Planted Knives on Dead Miners: Report

Video also shows dead workers in handcuffs
By Liam Carnahan,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 6, 2012 3:22 PM CST
South African Police Planted Knives on Dead Miners: Report
Retired judge Ian Farlam inspects the area where the bodies of mine workers were found, after the shootings at Lonmin's platinum mine in Marikana near Rustenburg, South Africa, Oct. 1, 2012.   (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

New photographic evidence in the ongoing court inquiry of the South African mine shooting last August suggests that police planted weapons near workers' dead bodies following the protest, a lawyer working on the case told an inquest. Police initially said they had acted in self-defense after the violent protest broke out at the Marikana mine. But one of the photos taken by police shows a dead body lying unarmed on rocky ground, while a second, taken later that day, shows the same body with a large machete under its arm, the BBC reports. Video footage also appeared to show dead workers with their hands cuffed behind their backs. (More South Africa stories.)

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