{"id":17615,"date":"2022-07-18T07:27:33","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T07:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated"},"modified":"2022-07-18T08:03:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T08:03:21","slug":"metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated","title":{"rendered":"Metsing says arrest politically motivated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, says his arrest and extradition proceedings in South Africa were politically motivated.
\nHe told thepost at the Ladybrand magistrate\u2019s court that certain politicians in Lesotho were behind his arrest last weekend although he could not identify who exactly was behind the decision.
\n\u201cI just think it\u2019s politically motivated, but I don\u2019t know who (is driving the decision),\u201d Metsing said. He said he was taken by surprise when he was told that he was under arrest for a 2018 extradition order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised when a police officer told me that I am under arrest for a warrant of arrest issued against me in 2018,\u201d Metsing said.
\n\u201cI go to the border regularly and present my passport. It has never raised a hint,\u201d he said. Asked why he had been arrested now, he said: \u201cI cannot say, I don\u2019t know, even the prosecutor had a hard time explaining that. \u201d<\/p>\n

Metsing appeared in the Ladybrand Magistrate\u2019s Court on Monday before Magistrate Serame Sekoera. He was released on M4 000 bail on Tuesday. He was ordered to report to the nearest police station every month after Lesotho\u2019s Justice Minister Lekhetho Rakuoane wrote his counterpart in South Africa asking that he should be granted bail.<\/p>\n

Metsing was arrested on Saturday at the Maseru border gate by South Africa police while trying to extend his visitor\u2019s permit. He fled Lesotho in December last year after he was charged with treason together with Movement for Economic Change leader Selibe Mochoboroane.<\/p>\n

Addressing the court at the beginning of the hearing, prosecutor Advocate Kitso Mogotsi said \u201cthe accused appear at the strength of a warrant of arrest\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe accused before court is facing several charges, the first one being corruption, two counts of fraud and three counts of tax evasion,\u201d Advocate Mogotsi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe warrant of arrest was issued in the High Court of Lesotho where the accused was supposed to appear sometime in April 2018.
\nAccording to the court papers the warrant of arrest was attached to a certificate of assurance signed by the then Minister of Law, Constitutional Affairs and Human Rights on January 11, 2018.<\/p>\n

Metsing\u2019s lawyer, Advocate Deon Mohala, argued that his client was not accused of any crime in South Africa. Advocate Mohala argued that the warrant of arrest lapsed because it was never executed due to SADC intervention that saw Metsing return to Lesotho in November 2018.<\/p>\n

Since his return to Lesotho, Metsing lived a public life, including attending parliament and participating in national reform proceedings and travelling in an out of Lesotho, Advocate Mohala said. Metsing also travelled multiple times in an out of South Africa since 2018, the latest trip being to Malawi in December 2021.<\/p>\n

Advocate Mohala further told the court that there was a high-level meeting between Lesotho and South Africa pertaining to the safe return of Metsing to Lesotho pursuant to another warrant of arrest that was issued by the Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane in December 2021.
\n\u201cWe are dealing with a matter that is mute in law, and the court should ask itself, why now, while both the government of Lesotho and South Africa knew where he was all along,\u201d Advocate Mohala said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, says his arrest and extradition proceedings in South Africa were politically motivated. He told thepost at the Ladybrand magistrate\u2019s court that certain politicians in Lesotho were behind his arrest last weekend although he could not identify who exactly was behind the decision. \u201cI just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":17614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,16],"tags":[233,246,963,245],"class_list":["post-17615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-democracy","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nMetsing says arrest politically motivated - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, says his arrest and extradition proceedings in South Afr ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Metsing says arrest politically motivated\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, says his arrest and extradition proceedings in South Afr ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-18T07:27:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-18T08:03:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_21-62d513a81a331.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Metsing says arrest politically motivated\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-18T07:27:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-18T08:03:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated\"},\"wordCount\":550,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_21-62d513a81a331.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Democracy\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated\",\"name\":\"Metsing says arrest politically motivated - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_21-62d513a81a331.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-18T07:27:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-18T08:03:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, says his arrest and extradition proceedings in South Afr ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_21-62d513a81a331.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_21-62d513a81a331.jpg\",\"width\":1536,\"height\":1024,\"caption\":\"Metsing says arrest politically motivated\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Metsing says arrest politically motivated\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Metsing says arrest politically motivated - Lesotho","description":"Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, says his arrest and extradition proceedings in South Afr ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Metsing says arrest politically motivated","og_description":"Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, says his arrest and extradition proceedings in South Afr ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-07-18T07:27:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-07-18T08:03:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1536,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_21-62d513a81a331.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Metsing says arrest politically motivated","datePublished":"2022-07-18T07:27:33+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-18T08:03:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated"},"wordCount":550,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_21-62d513a81a331.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","Democracy","Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","head lines","homepage-english","policy","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated","name":"Metsing says arrest politically motivated - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_21-62d513a81a331.jpg","datePublished":"2022-07-18T07:27:33+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-18T08:03:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, says his arrest and extradition proceedings in South Afr ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_21-62d513a81a331.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_21-62d513a81a331.jpg","width":1536,"height":1024,"caption":"Metsing says arrest politically motivated"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/metsing-says-arrest-politically-motivated#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Metsing says arrest politically motivated"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}