Lawyer piles pressure on Molibeli

MASERU – A lawyer representing two families whose sons were allegedly murdered by the police this week piled pressure on the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to prosecute police boss Holomo Molibeli.

Advocate Letuka Molati this week wrote to the DPP, Hlalefang Motinyane, requesting her to either prosecute Molibeli or allow a private prosecution to take him on.

The two were allegedly murdered during “interrogation” at the Hlotse police station four years ago.

The push to prosecute Molibeli comes after the lawyer discovered a crucial piece of evidence at the police station in the form of an occurrence book which showed the two were found dead at the police station.

The crucial police document shows that on January 15, 2019 at 11pm two men who were suspected of robbery, Timeletso Sekhonyana and Lethusang Mongali, were found dead in the police holding cells.

The occurrence book, serialising the report number as 598, showed that the men were taken to Motebang Hospital in Hlotse where they were confirmed dead.

In December last year Advocate Molati wrote to Advocate Motinyane asking her to allow his clients to privately prosecute Commissioner Molibeli and four other police officers.

Advocate Motinyane has not moved an inch towards either prosecuting the police or issuing the certificate of private prosecution to the complainants.

Last week’s discovery of the occurrence book at the Hlotse police station is crucial because it puts the DPP on the spotlight, whether she will prosecute the police boss or issue the certificate to allow private prosecution.

The families now want Commissioner Molibeli privately prosecuted as an accessory to their murder.

Mongali and Sekhonyana were allegedly murdered by four police officers while in a holding cell at the Hlotse police station in January 2019.

Four years later, their families say the police have not told them anything about the investigation into their murder.

Efforts by their lawyer Advocate Molati to pursue the DPP to prosecute or the police to launch investigations into the double murder have been unsuccessful.

Last week Advocate Molati told the DPP that he has now found the occurrence book and now wants her to either prosecute or allow for private prosecution.

He threatened to go to court to force the DPP to issue the private prosecution certificate if she refuses to issue it.

He said the DPP should tell Commissioner Molibeli and the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) commander that “the police record books do not disappear because it will be additional criminal charge”.

“The witnesses should not be interfered with as that would be another criminal charge,” Advocate Molati’s letter reads.

“The complainants should not be interfered with as one of them has already run away to South Africa,” he said.

The letter has been copied to Prime Minister Sam Matekane, Deputy Prime Minister Nthomeng Majara, Police Minister Lebona Lephema, Commissioner Molibeli, and the Deputy Commissioner of Police CID.

Advocate Molati told the DPP that once she issues him with the private prosecution certificate he will charge Commissioner Molibeli with accessory to murder.

He also said he will charge with murder a female officer “who is in good books of the Commissioner of Police hence the clear intention of the Commissioner of Police to obstruct murder investigation and prosecution”.

He said he will also charge with murder a male police officer.

Two other officers, he said, “are accomplice witnesses in this murder charge”.

Commissioner Molibeli has confirmed receipt of the letter from Advocate Molati.

Asked to comment on the contents of the letter last night, Commissioner Molibeli said: “I can’t respond in my personal capacity. Let the LMPS spokesperson respond.”

Police spokesman Senior Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli was unavailable on his phone before going to print.

The spokesperson of the DPP’s office, ’Malesaoana Mohale, said the DPP said she did not have any dockets which she could rely on to draft charges.

However, she could not be brought to reveal whether she would give Advocate Molati the certificate for private prosecution.

She also would not confirm receipt of Advocate Molati’s letter.

Last year, Advocate Molati told the DPP that “the police over-suffocated one of the deceased” until he died.

“The other suspect was still watching. The police then sought instructions from the police headquarters on what should be done since the other suspect saw them kill his companion,” he said in the letter.

“The response or instruction from the police headquarters was that they (Leribe CID police) should kill the second suspect who saw them kill the first suspect to conceal evidence.”

Advocate Molati wrote to Commissioner Molibeli on March 19, 2019, asking him to investigate the alleged murders.

The police have not investigated the murder, he said.

He said many things had happened “including acts of intimidation which came from the police top-brass at police headquarters in relation to this double murder”.

“The Commissioner of Police has not assigned officers to investigate this matter,” he told the DPP in the earlier letter.

“The Commissioner of Police has no desire to see the police who are suspects in this double murder remanded for murder as it is the law,” he said.

“The Commissioner of Police has instead obstructed the investigations into this matter.”

Staff Reporter