High Court to hear missing police officer’s case

Rapelang Mosae

MASERU

THE High Court will tomorrow hear a habeas corpus case involving a missing police constable who disappeared in March this year.

Constable Mokalekale Khetheng was arrested by police officers while attending a traditional ceremony on March 26. He later “disappeared” from the police station.

The habeas corpus case comes amid frentic social media reports that a body of man had been retrieved from Katse Dam.

The police however said they were not aware of the report.

Khetheng’s family filed an urgent application in the High Court last month seeking it to order police commissioner Molahlehi Letsoepa to bring their son’s corpse to court.

In an affidavit, Khetheng’s father, Thabo Khetheng, said his son was attending a traditional feast at his home when three police officers arrived and arrested him.

He said the arrest happened at around noon and they drove him to Hlotse Police Station.

He said 10 days later on April 5 he and his other son, Mabula Khetheng, went to the police station in Hlotse to find out what had happened to Khetheng but his efforts to get information from the police were in vain.

“Up to date, I do not know the whereabouts of my son, despite numerous attempts to find out where he can be,” Khetheng said in the affidavit.

“I am apprehensive that his life is in grave danger or he may even be dead, especially in view of the time period since he was kidnapped,” he said.

“I aver that it is unlawful and highly irregular for the police to keep a person in custody for this long without charging or taking him to court.”

Last week, a policewoman stationed at Hlotse told the High Court in an affidavit that she was one of the officers who arrested Khetheng.

Police Constable ’Mabohlokoa Makotoko made the disclosure while contesting her transfer to the Tlalinyane Police Post on the outskirts of the Leribe district.

Makotoko claims that after the arrest they were ordered by their superior not to take Khetheng to the Hlotse holding cells.

They however took him to the same Hlotse police station where he was later driven away.

Makotoko says a day after the arrest, she received numerous calls from colleagues asking where Khetheng was and because she felt uncomfortable with the questions she asked her superior who had ordered them to not to take Khetheng to Hlotse where the man was.

She says her superior answered that he took Khetheng to Maputsoe police station where he was interviewed and released and was later rearrested by a team of soldiers and police officers from Maseru who said he was a dangerous person.

She says she did not believe the senior’s explanation and later heard rumours that Khetheng had been killed.

Makotoko further says she was called to the Law Office in Maseru where she was asked to lie about the arrest and disappearance of Khetheng, but she refused.

Police spokesperson Superintendent Clifford Molefe told thepost that he had no reports at his desk to the effect that anyone had been retrieved from Katse Dam, as such he could not comment on the truth or otherwise of the information.

The lawyer for both the Khetheng family and Makotoko, Advocate Letuka Molati, said he had not been given any information on the alleged death of Khetheng.

Thabiso Khetheng, who is a brother to Mokalekale Khetheng, said the family had also not been informed of the death of Khetheng.

He said they were still waiting on a report as he had still not been found and the police had not availed any information as to his whereabouts.

Khetheng’s issue was first brought to the public when the Minister of Police was asked in parliament by the Member for Mokhotlong Constituency, Teboho Mapesela, when he would intervene in his disappearance.

Mapesela had submitted that reports had indicated that Khetheng was arrested by the Police CID on March 26 and was kept in custody at Hlotse Police Station.

Mapesela said Khetheng had mysteriously disappeared from the police station.

The government has denied reports that Khetheng was ever arrested, instead the Minister of Labour Thulo Mahlakeng who answered questions in the absence of Police Minister Monyane Moleleki said Khetheng had deserted his employment as a policeman.

He said Khetheng had been called to the Hlotse Police station by the Hlotse Police commander at the request of the Mokhotlong commander to explain why he had not reported for duty.

He went on to state that whilst there Khetheng left the reception and was never seen again.

Mahlakeng’s account conflicted with reports from other MPs as well as the account of other family members that Khetheng had been arrested by a group of police officers who came to his home in a police vehicle and apprehended him.