Two advocates of the Lesotho High Court, involved in a high-profile treason and murder trial, have become the latest to experience torture, death threats and other ill-treatment at the hands of the local police. As Carmel Rickard explains, reference to their experience was made by Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane in an extraordinary judgment refusing to recuse himself from presiding over the trial.
In his decision he was scathing about the behaviour of the country’s Director of Public Prosecutions, and her colleague, controversial South African advocate and former prosecutions boss, Shaun Abrahams. He laid out their behaviour and its potential for further delaying the start of the trial, mentioning that the two advocates had not been in court on a certain day because one was recovering from police torture and the other was in hiding from police death threats. However, alarming as these two incidents may be, they are just the latest examples of police brutality, an ongoing problem in Lesotho. There could be a difference this time though: the police targeted counsel and so the issue is back on the radar of the Chief Justice, known to be a strong opponent of such behaviour.
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