Lesotho Prime Minister appears in court to be charged with murder

Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who was expected to be charged on Friday with the murder of his estranged wife, Lilopelo Thabane, has appeared in the Maseru Magistrate’s Court, on Monday.

The prime minister previously failed to appear in court on alleged medical grounds while preliminary reports claimed he was in Pretoria, while others suggested he had skipped the country.

Thabane is expected to be charged in court.

Thabane announced he would step down on 31 July following pressure from his party to quit over the scandal.

“It has been agreed with his lawyer that he will appear [in court] and he will be formally charged with… murder,” Deputy Police Commissioner Paseka Mokete told AFP of the case that has also drawn in the prime minister’s current wife.

Lilopelo Thabane, 58, was killed in June 2017 by unknown assailants on the outskirts of the capital Maseru, two days before the premier, now aged 80, took office.

The couple had been embroiled in bitter divorce proceedings when Lipolelo was murdered in front of her home in the capital.

Her death shook the tiny mountainous kingdom of Lesotho, which is entirely surrounded by South Africa.

(Compiled by Gopolang Moloko, background: AFP)

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