Retired Lesotho army commander Lieutenant General (Lt. Gen.) Tlali Kamoli has on Tuesday told the High Court that he is against his case presided over by a foreign judge. The former army strongman is facing about 14 charges of murder and several counts which he is alleged to have committed while he was still commander of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) before he was retired in 2017 at the behest of Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Addressing the court after hearing from the crown that his case of murder of Sub-Inspector Mokheseng Ramahloko of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) was no-longer going to proceed from Tuesday as was initially the plan, because the trial awaits foreign judges, Lt. Gen. Kamoli expressed that he is not happy at all with the foreign judges. He explained that it has been a year since he and his co-accused were detained at the maximum prison only to be told by the court that their case would be heard by foreign judges. He said they expressed their discontent to the court through their lawyers.
According to Lt. Gen. Kamoli, it has always been their request and hope that their case would be heard by local judges as “they are competent to do so.” He complained that their rights were being trampled upon regardless of the fact that they surrendered themselves to the police because they wanted their case to be dealt with to finality. The acting judge of the high court, Justice Moroke Mokhesi asked Lt Gen Kamoli to be patient and wait for the new developments in the next set postponement date. He indicated however that the court understood and felt for him.