Moorosi Tsiane
THE Commissioner of Police, Advocate Borotho Matsoso, is facing a M4.3 million damages claim from a Maseru man who alleges he was brutally tortured by police officers while in custody at Lithoteng Police Station in December 2019.
The plaintiff, Lebohang Lenoesa, accuses members of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) of subjecting him to severe torture in an attempt to force him to falsely implicate himself in the theft of a laptop.
Mr Lenoesa is seeking M4.3 million in damages, comprising M2.5 million for pain and suffering and M1.8 million for loss of amenities of life.
Adv Matsoso has been cited as the respondent on the basis that the officers were allegedly acting within the course and scope of their employment, making the police commissioner vicariously liable for their actions.
According to court papers, Mr Lenoesa’s ordeal began on December 29, 2019, when police officers arrived at his home accompanied by a neighbour who had allegedly stolen a laptop.
He claims the neighbour admitted he had wrongly implicated him, but police arrested him nonetheless and ordered him to help recover the stolen laptop.
The laptop was later recovered before both men were taken to Lithoteng Police Station.
Mr Lenoesa alleges that while in custody, the neighbour repeatedly informed officers that he alone had stolen the laptop and that he (Lenoesa) was innocent, but his pleas were ignored.
He says that on his first night in detention, officers took him from his cell into another room where he found the neighbour lying on the floor.
“I found him in another room lying on the floor near a tube when I got called that first night. I was ordered to lie next to him and my hands were bound on my back with handcuffs,” Mr Lenoesa states in his affidavit.
He alleges that an officer identified only as Sibeko demanded that he reveal where the laptop had come from.
“He told me to tell them where the laptop had come from or otherwise they would kill me.”
Mr Lenoesa alleges that officers then subjected him to what he describes as water torture.
“I was then contorted in a way that my legs were bent to go through my hands where I was cuffed. A tube was then placed on my face with water in it.”
Despite repeatedly maintaining his innocence, he says the officers refused to believe him. They instead intensified the torture until he lost consciousness.
“When I woke up I found myself lying down, water being poured on my face in an attempt to wake me. I had peed on and soiled my pants.”
Rather than helping him, he alleges the officers further humiliated him.
“I then asked if I was being made to implicate myself and explained to them that I had already relieved myself in the process.”
He says officers responded by threatening to force him to eat his own faeces if he did not confess.
Faced with what he describes as unbearable torture, Mr Lenoesa says he eventually made a false confession.
“I then had no choice but to implicate myself that [the neighbour] had told me that he had stolen the laptop at a police officer’s home.”
He alleges that even after confessing, officers continued torturing him.
“The officer took the tube again and asked me why, if I already knew about the laptop, I did not say so. Before I could answer he then pulled it over my face suffocating me again until I lost consciousness the second time.”
After regaining consciousness, he says officers poured water over him before removing handcuffs.
He alleges that despite pleading for drinking water, officers refused.
“I was thirsty but I was denied water when I asked. Even when I got to the cell one of my cellmates was ordered to take away all the water bottles outside and they said if I had water I might die.”
Mr Lenoesa further claims that his neighbour later told him police had instructed him to falsely implicate him and threatened him with similar torture if he refused.
He also alleges that officers warned him his ordeal was “not over” and promised they would return for him.
The following day, both men appeared in court while still wearing urine- and faeces-soiled clothes.
Unable to immediately raise bail, the plaintiff says he was remanded in prison, where he suffered further humiliation because of his condition.
Throughout his detention, he alleges the neighbour repeatedly tried to inform police officers, including the officer commanding, that he had falsely implicated him, but his attempts were ignored.
Mr Lenoesa argues that the alleged torture left him with permanent physical and psychological injuries.
He claims he continues to suffer pain in his hands, neck, knees and feet, has lost proper use of his hands, and developed post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, chronic pain and sleeping difficulties.
He also alleges emotional trauma, humiliation and impaired sexual functioning.
“I also do not feel safe as I live in constant fear of being hurt by the police; I currently am a squatter in other people’s homes in fear that they will come get me in mine,” he states in the court papers.
Mr Lenoesa argues that the Commissioner of Police is legally liable because the officers were acting within the course and scope of their employment at the time of the alleged torture.
He is seeking M4.3 million in compensation for the physical, psychological and emotional harm he says he continues to suffer.