MASERU — The High Court through Justice Palesa Rantara has on Thursday sentenced Ts’enolo Thamahane to life imprisonment in a murder case of Malechakane Mokhoema and 30 years imprisonment in an attempted murder case of Tebello Mokhoema who is an assistant registrar of the High Court.
While delivering judgement, Justice Rantara said that the submissions made by the defence counsel on extenuating and mitigating suggested that the accused was under intense provocation and anger leading to the moment of self-control.
She mentioned that the seriousness of the offence is admitted that the accused was found guilty of murder in the form of an interrogation noting that it is a matter of common cause that this offence is inherently serious crime and is denigrated.
She said that the court found that the accused’s behaviour showed no signs of a sudden emotional breakdown but instead revealed deliberate persistence. She pointed out that he had earlier publicly vowed to kill the victims and followed PW1 for nearly 90 kilometres.
She said the actions sustained intention rather than spontaneous rage.
Justice Rantara mentioned that the accused committed this crime to a defenceless woman and in the privacy of their home. She said the deceased in this case was brutally shot in the presence of two minor children pointing out that the lifelong trauma and other aftereffects of that murder will impact the children and deceased family members.
She mentioned that the offences the accused person convicted of are both serious offences that undermine the inherent fundamental human rights and dignity.
She mentioned that the accused’s defence in this case was that of self-defence and the court found that the accused did not act in self-defence in the condition of the circumstances. She said that the court is not convinced that the accused’s mediating and in the heat of the moment, resorted to the shooting of deceased. . .
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