Some of the accused in a case in which two politicians, former army commander and the army members are among others charged with the alleged 2014 treason, who have applied for their release on bail, will on December 14 2023 know the outcome of their application.

The Court has in this matter decided to rely on heads of arguments from the applicants and the respondents after hearing of the application failed on several occasions. 

The applicants in this case,  Motloheloa Ntsane and Leutsoa Motsieloa claim that they are suffering prejudice due to unreasonable delays in this case. They insist that the application should be granted.  They also applied for separation of trials in the same case. They argued that they suffer prejudice when they sit in court and listen to charges against their co-accused adding that they stand to incur unnecessary costs.     

The prosecution argued that the accused are charged together with others to avoid prejudice for all parties involved, repetition of evidence and duplication of trials.Therefore, in this request the presiding judge concluded that it is not desirable to separate the charges in the matter. She pointed out that it is not in the interest of the administration of justice to separately charge persons accused of common purpose.      

Motsieloa and Ntsane are in this case charged together with the Minister of Health, also a leader of Movement for Economic Change (MEC) honourable Selibe Mochoboroane, Former Deputy Prime Minister and leader of Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), Mothejoa Metsing, Former Army Commander, leuatanant Tlali Kamoli and Litekanyo Nyakane.   

They are facing various charges and their alternatives which include treason, murder, attempted murder, risk of injury or death and aggravated assault which they have pleaded not guilty to.