‘Hitmen paid $24 000 to kill ex-PM’s wife’

Lesotho's former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane and his wife paid assassins $24 000 to kill his estranged wife Lipolelo three years ago, according to a police statement. The scandal that has rocked the kingdom prompted Thabane to resign last month under pressure over accusations he hampered the investigation. Thabane and his then wife Lipolelo Thabane were in the middle of a bitter divorce when she was shot and killed outside her Maseru home two days before her husband's 2017 inauguration. Thabane has not yet been charged, but the police said he was involved in the plot to kill Lipolelo using hired killers and his wife Maesaiah is in custody accused of murder. A report on the News24 site notes that Deputy Police Commissioner Paseka Mokete said Thabane and Maesaiah ‘wanted the deceased dead so that (Maesaiah) ...could assume the position of first lady’. ‘Thabane physically pointed out the residence of the deceased to his co-accused,’ Mokete added. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Thabane's mobile number has been traced to the scene of the crime.

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