Lesotho: following abduction of Kananelo Boloetse, RSF calls for independent investigation

Newsday news editor Kananelo Boloetse was preparing to spend the evening at his home in Maseru on 5 September when three individuals broke in and forcibly took him away in their vehicle, he told RSF.

According to his account, he was assaulted inside the vehicle before being interrogated at around 9:45 p.m. in an unidentified building. The questions focused on his work as a journalist and his activities with a local civil society organisation he co-founded called Section 2. His abductors told him they would return and kill him if news of his abduction became public. Kananelo Boloetse was then abandoned by his abductors, left with a bruised, swollen face and multiple injuries to the rest of his body.

According to RSF’s information, the journalist, who remains concerned for his safety, filed a complaint the following morning at a police station in Maseru. When contacted by RSF, Newsday co-founder Lerato Matheka said that a complaint had been forwarded to police headquarters.

The Lesotho Mounted Police Service have “established a special investigative team which has resumed its investigations on the alleged kidnapping and assault of Mr Boloetse,” its spokesperson, Thabo Mohai, told RSF.