Maseru, Apr. 12 — ‘Matlali Soro, ‘Makopanang Mohatle and Thetso Kabi who are accused of theft of M209, 950.00 belonging to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) have been granted bail by the Maseru Magistrate’s Court.
The accused were granted bail on condition that each pays M500 bail deposit. As part of their bail conditions, they were ordered to stand trial and attend remands. They were also warned against interfering with the crown witnesses and investigations into the matter.
The accused are charged with contravening section 57 read with section 109 of Penal Code Act No.06 of 2010.
According to the charge, on April 04, 2023, at or near Ha Seoli in Maseru, the accused did each one or all of them, unlawfully and intentionally steal the M209, 950, the property in the lawful possession of Limpho Monese in his capacity as the Deputy Finance Manager of the IEC under the Government of Lesotho.
According to reports from the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) the accused are members of Basutoland Democratic Congress and Basotho Economic Enrichment (BEE) respectively. It is stated that they falsely reported that certain money was stolen from them while they were paying party agents.
It is indicated that police investigations revealed that the accused were the ones who stole the money and that instead of paying the party agents M300, they paid them M150.
The reports show that although the accused had reported only M52,000.00 to have been stolen, M13,500.00 was recovered at the BDC’s office at AME Hall while M196,000.00 was recovered at the BEE’s office in Maseru East.
The trio is expected to appear in court again on April 20 2022.
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