FORMER Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili has forgiven six Mozambican and South African mercenaries who attempted to assassinate him in 2009.
Mosisili visited the jailed mercenaries at the Maseru Central Correctional facility yesterday where, according to the Lesotho Correctional Service, he declared that he had forgiven them.
The main purpose of his meeting with the mercenaries was to seek answers as to who was behind the attempt to assassinate him 12 years ago.
The LCS spokesperson, Senior Cadet Officer Ntobane Pheko, said the meeting was very long, emotional and tense as Mosisili kept on firing questions to the mercenaries about their intended plans to kill him.
Senior Cadet Officer Pheko said his organisation last year approached Mosisili informing him that they planned to release the mercenaries on parole.
The mercenaries had requested to meet him to ask for forgiveness.
He said Mosisili never came last year and the mercenaries kept on begging him to meet them.
Senior Cadet Officer Pheko said before releasing the inmates on parole it is standard practice for them to meet the victims to hear their opinions.
This week, Mosisili came through to meet the mercenaries and he agreed to forgive them.
Senior Cadet Officer Pheko said the mercenaries had almost finished their sentencing and they qualified to be released on parole.
“Next year they will be released as they will be completing their sentence,” he said.
He said they found it wise to organise a meeting with the victims because they believed the inmates have now been rehabilitated.
He said they have programmes at their facility to rehabilitate inmates so that they can be useful members of society.
Senior Cadet Officer Pheko said Mosisili returned from the meeting a happy man because he seemed to have got all the answers he needed.
He said Mosisili told them he had forgiven them.
The six mercenaries were arrested in 2009 for attempting to kill Mosisili while he was still Lesotho’s Prime Minister.
They were found guilty and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment.