The wife of former Prime Minister of Lesotho Thomas Thabane, accused of the murder of her husband's first wife, returned to prison on Wednesday after the court annulled her judicial supervision, found an AFP journalist .
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Maesaiah Thabane, 43, was charged in February for participating in the 2017 assassination of Lipolelo Thabane, the first wife of former head of government Thomas Thabane (2017-2020). A few weeks after the crime, she had married Thomas Thabane. Last week, the Lesotho Court of Appeal overturned the controversial judicial review measures it enjoyed. " The High Court's decision to grant you parole has been overturned by the Court of Appeal, " Justice Thamae Thamae reminded him on Wednesday of Maseru. " You will stay at the penitentiary center. You are summoned again on June 16, 2020 ”.
Maesaiah Thabane, dressed in a tracksuit, a brown coat and sneakers, simply replied to the magistrate: " yes, I understand ". Mrs. Thabane had already spent a few hours in prison at the start of the year before obtaining her parole in exchange for the payment of a bail of 1,000 maloti (about 50 euros). After the cancellation of the judicial control measures enjoyed by Maesaiah Thabane, the police could not immediately proceed to arrest her because she was in neighboring South Africa with her husband who came for treatment. She was arrested on her return to her country.
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The murder of Lipolelo Thabane, a multi-faceted affair, plunged Lesotho into a serious political crisis. It led to the resignation on May 19 of Thomas Thabane, 80, dropped by the coalition which had supported his government for three years.
During an interview with AFP in May, Thomas Thabane had proclaimed the innocence of his wife. " All this mud stirred up to try to implicate it, frankly it doesn't work, " he said. Himself implicated in the file, he had denied any responsibility. " I did not kill anyone, certainly not my wife, " he was indignant at AFP. Thomas Thabane remains under threat of indictment.