Africa-Press – Lesotho. A Maputsoe-based pastor is suing Police Commissioner Holomo Molibeli for M400 000 after he was brutally assaulted by police recruits during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Commissioner Molibeli deployed hundreds of recruits who were at the Police Training College to help enforce Covid-19 lockdown rules between 2020 and 2021.
Lehlohonolo Rampai, who at the time was a student at the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, says he was travelling in a taxi on November 23, 2021 near the main traffic circle in Maseru when was pulled over by the police.
He says he was not wearing a mask as he was busy eating an apple. Rampai says the police ordered him to lie down, which he did, and the assault continued while he was lying on the ground.
The police intensified the beatings when he asked them why they were assaulting him. “Other recruits then joined the attack, beating me with sticks and kicking me while I was on the ground,” he says.
“When a trainee from across the street stopped his fellow recruits and questioned them as to why they were hitting me, I then realised that they were under supervision.
” Rampai says he now has difficulty getting an erection as a result of the assault. He says he is now afraid to marry a woman he loves lest he fails to perform in the bedroom.
“I have developed chronic pain after being unlawfully assaulted,” Rampai says in his court papers.
“I suffered and felt a lot of pain on the limbs,” he says. He says the assault left him hurt and forever afraid, altering his personality.
He says a video of the assault trended on social media, which made him feel humiliated and violated. Rampai says he went to Queen Elizabeth II Hospital a day after the assault where he was treated for his injuries.
Rampai says he is a well-behaved Lesotho citizen and a pastor at the World Restoration Church. “I was embarrassed by this occurrence, which was caught on camera and became a social media craze,” Rampai says.
He says his fellow students shared the video of the assault among themselves which embarrassed him further. Rampai says the assault left him embarrassed at the church where he is a pastor and in his Ha-Shepheseli village where he is recognised for his pastoral work.
“I am humiliated,” he says. He has cited the Attorney General in his capacity as the state attorney in the lawsuit.
Additionally, he is demanding attorney and own client scale court fees as well as payment at the rate of 18.5 per year from the date of judgement. His lawyer Advocate Letuka Molati says the case is expected to be heard on November 16 this year.
Police spokesman, Senior Superintendent Kabelo Halahala, says Rampai has not lodged any official complaint with the police authorities against the recruits he is claiming have assaulted him.
“We only take action on cases reported, not on what we see on social media platforms,” S/Supt Halahala says.
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