MASERU – Tšolo ‘Tjekatjeka’ Thakeli said no amount of harassment and intimidation by the police will stop him from criticising the government for failing to fulfil its promises.
“I will not be silenced,” Tjekatjeka said last night, just hours after his lawyer took him from the police headquarters, where officers seemed undecided about the charges they intended to press against him.
Tjekatjeka, 33, was arrested after posting a video on Facebook slamming Prime Minister Sam Matekane’s government for failing to create jobs.
He mocked Matekane’s government for calling a national meeting to discuss plans to reduce youth unemployment three years after coming into power.
He told thepost last night that he would make the police pay for harassing him.
“I will not let this just pass by. I will take legal steps when the time is right,” Tjekatjeka said, adding that the government “is abusing its state organs like the police to suppress freedom of expression”.
Narrating his ordeal, he said he was picked up by five police officers on Sunday at his home in Khubetsoana and questioned over his Facebook video.
He was released after the interrogation but the police kept his phone.
At around 9pm on the same day the police picked him up again and took him to the headquarters for another interrogation. He was locked up in the police holding cells for the night and told he would appear in court on Monday.
Tjekatjeka said while he was still detained some police officers tried to persuade him to apologise to the prime minister but he refused.
“The police told me that I had insulted the Prime Minister and I should ask for forgiveness,” he said.
Tjekatjeka did not appear before the court on Monday because the Maseru Magistrate’s Court said it did not have jurisdiction over the matter.
The police then took him to the Berea Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday but he was not charged.
“I was never charged at that court again and I was not told why I was released,” he said.
Tjekatjeka said the police told him that he was facing a possible charge of breaching peace or inciting violence with his Facebook post.
Tjekatjeka gave a brief speech at the Youth Jobs Dialogue at the Manthabiseng Convention Centre yesterday.
Hours later, he was summoned to the police headquarters but this time he was not interrogated.
Instead, the police just kept him waiting until his lawyer Advocate Tembo Lesupi arrived. Advocate Lesupi said he asked the police why they were detaining his client.
He said when the police did not give him a convincing answer he said he was leaving with Tjekatjeka.
“I told them that if there was no legal basis to detain my client then they should release him,” Advocate Lesupi said. “We left the police office freely.”
Police spokesman, Senior Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli, said the Maseru Magistrate’s Court told them that it did not have jurisdiction over the matter.
“We asked him to report back to us on Wednesday morning,” S/Supt Mopeli said.
S/Supt Mopeli said Tjekatjeka’s video could have breached peace and incited violence.
“It is the court that would tell exactly which words in the video have translated into inciting violence,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Southern Defenders, a regional network of human rights lawyers, strongly condemned the arbitrary arrest, harassment, and intimidation of Tjekatjeka.
The association argued that his treatment at the hands of state authorities constitutes a serious violation of fundamental rights and reflects an alarming trend of state oppression in the country.
In the press statement, the association argued that Tjekatjeka exercised his constitutionally and internationally recognised and protected right to freedom of expression by posting a Facebook video in which he openly criticised the government of Lesotho.
In light of these serious violations, the Southern Defenders called on the government to immediately cease all forms of harassment and intimidation against Thakeli and all other human rights defenders in the country.
“This amounts to clear violations of international human rights obligations,” the association said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Thakeli’s arrest and detention constitute an unlawful restriction of his freedom of expression which is protected under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.”
Majara Molupe
