The ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC) duo Montoeli Masoetsa and Chalane Phori who are also members of the executive committee have just been arrested for sedition.
According to Police Public Relations Officer Senior Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli the ABC Public Relations Officer Masoetsa and Phori who is the Deputy Chairperson of Conferences, were arrested this afternoon after being called in for a briefing to the police following their utterances over the weekend.
The two inter alia had inferred the substitution of Dr Moeketsi Majoro from the premiership whom they were suggesting be replaced with Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Marketing Nkaku Kabi who has since been unseated from his ministerial post.
Mopeli said the two are being charged for contravening Section 76 (1,2) of the Penal Code Number 6 of 2010. He could however, not be brought into saying when they would appear in court but “…from the information I received, the two have filed for an urgent application that they should be taken to court soonestâ€.
Section 76 of the Penal Code talks to one who defies or subverts the authority of government as commiting a crime.
“A person who, with a number of other people, comes together in an unlawful gathering with the intention of defying or subverting the authority of the Government of Lesotho, but without the intention to overthrow or coerce the Government of Lesotho, commits an offence of sedition. “A person who does or attempts to do or makes any preparation to do, or conspires with any person to do, any act with seditious intention; utters any seditious words; prints, publishes, sells, offers for sale, distributes or reÂproduces any seditious publication; or knowingly imports any seditious publication, commits an offence,†reads the act.
