THE trial in which five members of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) are charged with the 2012 murder of three Mafeteng men could not proceed on Friday as scheduled because the prosecution failed to provide a mortuary registry book that the defence had requested.

The Crown’s Advocate Mosouenyane Masiphole told the High Court on Friday that after he was told to provide the document, he went to the Mafeteng Government Hospital mortuary where the bodies of the three men had been kept but he could not find it.

He said he was told that the registry book, being a public document, was not at the mortuary at the time and was being used somewhere else.

He told the court that the officer investigating the case told him earlier that morning that the registry was available and copies of it would be made.
One of the defence lawyers, Adv Kabelo Letuka said the document is fundamental therefore no further steps can be taken in the case if it is not made available.
The defense had last week requested a complete copy of the document from the prosecution as the one they received had incomplete information.

Letuka said the defence was unable to sign minutes of the pre-trial conference in the absence of the document.