Police have called in 80-year-old Thomas Thabane, the prime minister of Lesotho, for questioning regarding his suspected involvement in the 2017 murder of his estranged wife, Lipolelo Thabane. Lipolelo was fatally shot just weeks before the prime minister’s remarriage.
Lipolelo, aged 58, was gunned down outside her home in the capital city of Maseru in June 2017, just two days before her husband’s inauguration. Following her murder, the prime minister remarried two months later.
The couple had been engaged in a contentious divorce process as Lipolelo had reportedly refused to divorce her husband and had secured a court ruling to uphold her rights as the country’s first lady until their formal separation.
Now, the Lesotho police chief has requested the Prime Minister to provide information regarding the call records that indicated someone at the murder scene had called Thabane’s mobile phone on the day of the crime.
The police are seeking clarification on the nature and purpose of the call made from the crime scene to his mobile phone after the killing.
Police commissioner Holomo Molibeli wrote to Mr. Thabane, demanding to know the identity of the caller and the content of the call from the murder scene.
He stated, ‘The investigations reveal that there was a telephonic communication at the scene of the crime in question … with another cell phone. The cell phone number belongs to you.’
‘This case does not only attract the attention of Basotho nation (Lesotho) but it is of international concern,’ deputy police commissioner Paseka Mokete said in a statement.
These developments come after Thabane’s announcement of his intention to resign, following accusations by senior members of the All Basotho Convention (ABC) party that he obstructed the investigation into the killing.
‘As the prime minister, I have undertaken an oath to respect and protect the constitution and all other laws of Lesotho,’ he informed reporters in Maseru, pledging to ‘get to the bottom of this matter’.