Sept. 12 (UPI) -- The South African government is opening an inquest of the death of South African activist Steve Biko in 1977.
Friday is the 48th anniversary of Biko's death in police custody at age 30.
Biko was the founder and leader of anti-apartheid Black Consciousness Movement. He was arrested at a roadblock in what was then called Grahamstown, now Makhanda, in August 1977.
He was accused of violating a "banning order," a measure in the racial segregation laws that allowed police to restrict the movement of those the government deemed a threat. He was held for 20 days in jail, naked and shackled. Then he was driven over 600 miles, naked, with his legs in shackles in the back of a police vehicle, to Pretoria.
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