MASERU – THE Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is set to grill Commissioner Holomo Molibeli over the crude interrogation methods that have resulted in the force paying millions in damages to victims. Yesterday Molibeli was quizzed over M11 million that went missing in the police service during the 2012 general election.
But this time around the PAC, guided by the Auditor General’s report, is said to be readying to ask the police boss because of its heavy-handed interrogation methods.
The police have been paying millions to victims after losing court cases.
The Auditor General Lucy Liphafa reports that at the end of September 2017 when she closed her investigation, the police owed victims of torture over M2 million.
This is in addition to the millions more that it could end up paying if it loses the dozens of cases that are making their way in the
courts.
This comes at a time when opposition parties have raised concerns in three consecutive weeks calling for investigations on the deaths of people who are suspected or known to have been killed by the police. In some cases relatives have filed habeas corpus applications in the High Court while in some they are already claiming compensation.
In 2014 Justice Nthomeng Majara ordered the police to pay Tšeliso Lethole of Teya-Teyaneng M30 000 for pain and suffering, M2 000 for being embarrassed, another M2 000 for unlawful arrest and detention, M100 for hospital and medical expenses and costs of suit.
Lethole had sued after the Teya-Teyaneng police tortured him.
He told Justice Majara that in January 2010 he was at work when some police officers came and arrested him without informing him about the reason for the arrest.
Upon arrival at the police station he was held by the scruff of his neck, thrown down and assaulted by being kicked with boots all over the body until he was unconscious.
He added that he was also kept in detention.
When he came to, he discovered that he had a rubber tube over his head and when he tried to puncture it so that he could breathe he was insulted with crude reference to his mother’s private parts. When he regained consciousness he felt asphyxiated and there was considerable pain on his waist.
He requested to be taken to hospital and was only taken there on the following day.
However, the police refused to give him a medical form.
He added that his health had deteriorated a great deal as a result of the assault and he had to go for periodic medical check-ups for a ruptured kidney.
He had also lost his strength and was no longer able to perform the things he used to prior to the assault.
Further that at all the material times, the police officers were acting within the scope of their employment.
This is just one of the many cases that contributed to the police paying a victim of torture in 2014, a year in which the Auditor General is observing.
Still in 2014, Justice Tšeliso Monaphathi ordered the commissioner to pay Tšeliso Mokaka the sum of M250 000.
The court said M100 000 was for disfigurement, M50 000 for loss of amenities and M20 000 for being embarrassed.
The Morija police had found Mokaka and others enroute from initiation school to their home and they shouted at them to stop. Others who were with Mokaka ran away but Mokaka did not because there was no cause to do that. When the police reached him they started assaulting him and broke his leg.
He reported the matter to the chief who advised him to go to the doctors and obtain a medical form so that he could open a case against the police, which he did.
Staff Reporter
