CHIEF Justice Sakoane Sakoane on Tuesday took a swipe at lawyers involved in the matter in which the Minister of Development Planning, Selibe Mochoboroane faces among others treason charges in the High Court, accusing them of failure to properly prepare for the trial.
news
Dec. 7, 2021
OWN CORRESPONDENT
2 min read
Sakoane slams lawyers for shoddy work
Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane
Story highlights
The prosecution is blamed for failing to accordingly prepare its case
Trial is postponed to give counsel time to get their affairs in order
Mochoboroane who is also leader of the Movement for Economic Change (MEC) is accused with five members of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) of treasonous acts, which allegedly led to the murder of Police Sub Inspector Mokheseng Ramahloko in August 2014.
Earlier on Tuesday, the court was informed that the prosecution had not made full discovery as the defense had not received all witnesses’ statements making up the full docket of the case.
Some of the defense lawyers had indicated that their request for further particulars from the prosecution had not been met yet.
Chief Justice Sakoane also said he was not aware that preliminaries in the case had not yet been done.
He was therefore keen to know why he was not warned before the proceedings commenced, adding that under the circumstances, the indictment should not have been read.
He said the prosecution is obliged give the defense all the witnesses' statements.
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He therefore adjourned the proceedings saying the prosecution had failed to do its job properly, resulting in the defense not being fully prepared.
He warned that there should not be any more delays, adding that justice should not be delayed because of lawyers who fail to do their job.
“The court wants to proceed with the case without wasting any more time,” he said, postponing the trial until next week Monday.
He ordered that pre-trial motions be filed properly, adding that the prosecution should avail the full docket of the case to the defense. LeNA
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