The prosecution in a case in which two members of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) are charged with the murder of Lisebo Tang, which occurred in 2014 near the residence of Former Army Commander Tlali Kamoli at Ha-Leqele, on Tuesday introduced its first witness in the matter. Detective Lance Sergeant Liau Seeko who is a Crime Scene Officer at Pitso Ground told the court that he was part of the investigating team in the case. He related to the court his role in the investigations.

Meanwhile, the court was presented with a statement of facts together with exhibits comprising two AK47 rifles, a postmortem and a medical report. According to the postmortem which was conducted on May 14 2014 on the body of the deceased, the cause of her death was multiple gunshot wounds with injury to internal organs. <<<CLIP monate>>

  The accused in the matter, Corporal Tjekane Sebolai and Private Selone Ratsiu are facing charges of murder, attempted murder and malicious damage to property. It is alleged that they shot and killed Lisebo Tang as well as attempted to kill Tsepo Jane by shooting and injuring him during an incident which occurred at Ha-Leqele on May 09 2014.

It is further alleged that they also damaged a vehicle belonging to Jane by shooting at it during the same incident.  The matter was initially presided over by Justice Kabelo Lebotse, one of the foreign judges assigned to hear high profile cases in the country. However, the judge resigned at an advanced stage of the case where he had already ruled that two of the accused Corporal Sebolai and Private  Ratsiu have a case to answer. He had also acquitted their co-accused Private Kopano Matsoso indicating that the prosecution has failed to link him to the offences charged.       

The matter was eventually allocated to the Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane who decided that it should start afresh. He stated that in a criminal case where a judge resigns, the position of the law is that the judge cannot be forced to come and complete the matter. He indicated that the proceedings become a nullity and the matter should start de novo especially if the accused have not been convicted.   The prosecution in the matter is represented by Advocate Motene Rafoneke while the defence is represented by Adv. Sello Ts'abeha.