(MENAFN- The Post)
MASERU – Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, says his arrest and extradition proceedings in South Africa were politically motivated.
He told thepost at the Ladybrand magistrate's court that certain politicians in Lesotho were behind his arrest last weekend although he could not identify who exactly was behind the decision.
“I just think it's politically motivated, but I don't know who (is driving the decision),” Metsing said.
He said he was taken by surprise when he was told that he was under arrest for a 2018 extradition order.
“I was surprised when a police officer told me that I am under arrest for a warrant of arrest issued against me in 2018,” Metsing said.
“I go to the border regularly and present my passport. It has never raised a hint,” he said.
Asked why he had been arrested now, he said:“I cannot say, I don't know, even the prosecutor had a hard time explaining that.”
Metsing appeared in the Ladybrand Magistrate's Court on Monday before Magistrate Serame Sekoera.
He was released on M4 000 bail on Tuesday. He was ordered to report to the nearest police station every month after Lesotho's Justice Minister Lekhetho Rakuoane wrote his counterpart in South Africa asking that he should be granted bail.
Metsing was arrested on Saturday at the Maseru border gate by South Africa police while trying to extend his visitor's permit.
He fled Lesotho in December last year after he was charged with treason together with Movement for Economic Change leader Selibe Mochoboroane.
Addressing the court at the beginning of the hearing, prosecutor Advocate Kitso Mogotsi said“the accused appear at the strength of a warrant of arrest”.
“The accused before court is facing several charges, the first one being corruption, two counts of fraud and three counts of tax evasion,” Advocate Mogotsi said.
“The warrant of arrest was issued in the High Court of Lesotho where the accused was supposed to appear sometime in April 2018.”
According to the court papers the warrant of arrest was attached to a certificate of assurance signed by the then Minister of Law, Constitutional Affairs and Human Rights on January 11, 2018.
Metsing's lawyer, Advocate Deon Mohala, argued that his client was not accused of any crime in South Africa.
Advocate Mohala argued that the warrant of arrest lapsed because it was never executed due to SADC intervention that saw Metsing return to Lesotho in November 2018.
Since his return to Lesotho, Metsing lived a public life, including attending parliament and participating in national reform proceedings and travelling in an out of Lesotho, Advocate Mohala said.
Metsing also travelled multiple times in an out of South Africa since 2018, the latest trip being to Malawi in December 2021.
Advocate Mohala further told the court that there was a high-level meeting between Lesotho and South Africa pertaining to the safe return of Metsing to Lesotho pursuant to another warrant of arrest that was issued by the Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane in December 2021.
“We are dealing with a matter that is mute in law, and the court should ask itself, why now, while both the government of Lesotho and South Africa knew where he was all along,” Advocate Mohala said.
Nkheli Liphoto & Khotsofalang Koloi
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