’Maleseli Mahloane remembers seeing the bloodied face of her battered husband as he was being loaded into an army vehicle. Her husband was bellowing like a bull as soldiers beat him to a pulp at their home in Lekhalong Ha-Qamo, in Leribe on July 4. Her husband’s cries are still echoing in her head as the horror replays in her mind.
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Liteboho Mahloane, who was dragged out of his home at around 3am by the army, was released on Wednesday last week after his wife won an uncontested habeas corpus case in the High Court.
thepost has seen pictures of a badly injured Mahloane who was bandaged on his two legs and hands.
He is plastered from the hip bone downwards.
’Maleseli Mahloane narrated what happened on the fateful morning to thepost yesterday.
“My husband was kidnapped by eight soldiers at our home,” Mahloane said, in a shaky voice.
She said they heard people banging on their door several times, “stating that they were soldiers and therefore we should open, but we did not”.
“After a short period, we heard gunshots and then we decided to open the door,” she said.
“They immediately pounced on him and started assaulting him with fists even before saying a word as to why they came.”
She said the soldiers then dragged Liteboho outside where they brutally assaulted him with sticks.
“He asked why they were beating him, and they said he should produce an illegal firearm that he has.”
Mahloane said during the assault her husband asked the soldiers to search his house for that gun as he did not have any firearm.
“They searched everywhere, but they could not find anything,” she said.
Mahloane said after failing to find any gun the soldiers again assaulted Mahloane with a nylon-made rod.
“Others kicked him, while others used their fists and open hands to slap him.”
Mahloane said during the assault her husband cried telling the soldiers that they had broken his feet and his hands.
“They took out gloves from their pockets, wore them and examined his injuries and wiped his blood before loading him into the vehicle.”
She said before leaving, the soldiers told her to take her husband’s phone to Mokota-Koti, the army base in Peka, Leribe.
Mahloane said she went to Mokota-Koti where on arrival she was told that her husband had been transferred to Maseru.
“I went to the Makoanyane Barracks and soldiers at the gates pointed at the Mohlomi Hospital gate saying I should go there maybe he was admitted there.”
Mohlomi is the national hospital for mentally sick people.
She did not find her husband at Mohlomi and soldiers advised her to try the nearby Queen ’Mamohato Memorial Hospital, the national referral hospital.
“He was not there,” she said.
That was when someone advised her to approach a lawyer who helped her lodge the habeas corpus application in the High Court.
Liteboho was released last Wednesday after the army lawyer told the court that he could not be brought before the judge because he was too sick.
Advocate Thomas Thakalekoala told Justice Fumane Khabo that Liteboho had been admitted at the Makoanyane Military Hospital.
Justice Khabo ordered that the army could continue keeping him there until he is well or his family could take him to a health facility of their choice.
The family decided to remove him from the military hospital.
Mahloane said although she is happy that Liteboho is back “it pains me to see him injured and unable to do anything”.
“I now must do everything for him. We do not even have a wheelchair,” she said.
The family lawyer Advocate ’Makopi Lesaane told thepost that they are waiting for Liteboho to recover so that they can sue the army for compensation.
“He was brutally beaten during the capture and while in captivity,” Advocate Lesaane said.
“His life’s situation is scary. He cannot walk or work as his hands and legs are broken,” she said.
She again said the doctor told them that the two legs were not just broken, “but they are splintered. The bones in his two hands are splintered too.”
Advocate Lesaane said they are worried that Liteboho might never be able to walk again”.
“His femurs are broken, his plaster is long because his legs are broken from hip bone downwards,” she said.
Femurs are the longest, strongest bones in a person’s body.
They are critical parts that enable a person to stand and move.
“He cannot walk, bath or do anything by himself.”
Advocate Lesaane said Liteboho told him that the pain was still unbearable.
“They assaulted him from his house, in front of his wife. What more when there was no one watching,” she said.
“He has always been under torture since his capture.”
Nkheli Liphoto
