Lesotho PM accused of estranged wife's death by Police chief

Prime Minister of Lesotho, Thomas Thabane, has been accused of involvement in the murder of his estranged wife who died in 2017.

Lipolelo Thabane, 58, was murdered by an unknown person in Lesotho’s capital Maseru two days before her husband’s inauguration.

TheGuardian reported that Thabane became a suspect when a piece of alleged evidence (a court document filed by police commissioner Holomo Molibeli — who is challenging Thabane’s attempts to sack him) surfaced.

Enclosed in the file was a letter from Molibeli to Thabane saying that communication records from the day of Lipolelo’s murder picked up Thabane’s mobile phone number.

In the letter — dated December 23, 2019 — Molibeli asks Thabane to disclose who he spoke to.

“The investigations reveal that there was a telephonic communication at the scene of the crime in question …with another cell phone,” said the letter.

“The cell phone number belongs to you.”

Thabane attempted to remove the police chief last week after accusing him of abuse of power but Molibeli claims the PM acted due to the evidence gotten from an investigation that “implicated” him in his wife’s murder.

The prime minister’s spokesman Relebohile Moyeye said Thabane had not received the letter.

“We are very much surprised to have seen such letter trending on social media. It is therefore not easy to comment on anything as we can’t verify the authenticity of such a letter,” he said.

In his inaugural speech, Thabane described his wife’s murder as a “senseless killing”.