Police accused of torturing lawyer

Lesotho's Mounted Police Service (LMPS) stands accused of detaining and torturing a human rights lawyer after a client of his allegedly lied that he handed over an illegal firearm to the advocate for safekeeping. The client, a suspect linked to an armed robbery case, was said to have made the claim while allegedly being tortured by the LMPS. A report on the News24 site notes that the LMPS allegedly went to Napo Mafaesa's chambers where they arrested him and detained him for three days. The Transformation Resource Centre and Southern African Litigation Centre finally secured his release. The Law Society of Lesotho has condemned ‘in the strongest terms, the brutalisation of suspects and detainees in the hands of law enforcement agencies, an investigative technique which is characteristic of an authoritarian rule and has no room in the modern democratic dispensation’. Lesotho ratified the UN Convention Against Torture in 2001 and is duty-bound to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment.