OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 11.30pm.
AN urgent application by the wives of three Lesotho Defence Force soldiers arrested in connection with an army mutiny last month was heard in the High Court in Maseru on Thursday.
The women have made the application to demand that their husbands be allowed to meet their lawyers privately and that they be charged.
Haae Phoofolo, counsel for the women, said he was given access to the prisoners on Wednesday but was not allowed to meet them privately.
Government counsel Sipho Mdluli responded that this was because the men were detained under the kingdom’s defence law.
Judge Winston-Churchill Maqutu said he wanted to be addressed on the constitutionality of this law, saying it appeared inconsistent with constitution of Lesotho. The case continues on Friday.
The soldiers were rounded up last week, a move that has infuriated opposition leaders who say the arrests contravened the spirit of a political agreement reached between the opposition and the government.
Government and opposition, who have been at loggerheads over the outcome of the May election won by the ruling Lesotho Congress Democracy, have agreed to hold a new election within 18 months.
* Three South African soldiers doing peace keeping duties in Lesotho have been found guilty of being absent without official leave, SA National Defence Force spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Laverne Machin said on Thursday.
One of the three was fined R600 and given a three-month detention suspended for three years. The other two, who respectively faced three and two charges of being absent without official leave, were each sentenced to six months’ detention. Both will be discharged after serving their detentions, Machin said. On Wednesday six SA soldiers were convicted of various offences ranging from drunkenness to insubordination. — AFP
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