Three people involved in the case of a criminal who ran away from prison after committing rape and murder no longer have any legal charges against them.
Thabo Bester successfully escaped from a South African prison last year by pretending he was dead. He did this by starting a fire in his jail cell.
The incident made many people in South Africa very angry. The local media called him the “Facebook rapist” because he used the website to trick women by offering them jobs and then hurting them.
Twelve people, including Bester, were originally accused of escaping from prison. However, on Wednesday, three of them had their charges dropped.
The government did not say why the accusations were dropped, but people think that the charges against Nastaja Jansen, Thabang Mier, and Moeketsi Ramulula were canceled because there was not enough evidence.
During the court hearing, Bester’s lawyers claimed that the Department of Correctional Service had secretly recorded his phone calls. The state said they don’t know about this.
The court was told that the case was ready to be moved to the high court for pre-trial procedures on 21 February next year.
Tag: Thabo Bester
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Three charges regarding ‘Facebook rapist’s’ jailbreak dismissed
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The price paid by South Africa to bring back fugitive Thabo Bester
Home affairs minister for South Africa, Aaron Motsoaledi, has disclosed how much it cost the government to extradite the pair Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana from Tanzania, where they were hiding out.
Speaking to the Portfolio Committee on Tuesday, Mr. Motsoaledi insisted that he wanted to dismiss the public notion that Bester and Magudumana were repatriated from Tanzania in great comfort and luxury.
Bester was re-arrested in Tanzania last Friday, having fled from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in May 2022 by faking his death and planting a corpse in his cell. He was arrested together with his girlfriend, celebrity doctor Magudumana, in Tanzania.
Bester, a convicted murderer and rapist, has already appeared at the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court and will be back in the dock on May 16.
Assisting in prison escape
Magudumana also appeared in court for her alleged role in helping Bester escape prison. In addition, Magudumana’s father, Zolile Sekeleni, along with former G4S employee Senohe Matsoara and camera installer Teboho Lipholo are charged with assisting Bester to escape from prison.
Mr. Motsoaledi has set the record straight, stating that the R1.4 million [$80,000] chartered flight was the cheapest option.
He also revealed that Bester could not return to South Africa on a commercial passenger flight as it would have been careless and would have taken a while to transport the pair.
The minister confirmed that 14 officials had to travel to the Kenya-Tanzania border to repatriate the two fugitives.
Why not commercial flight
“I don’t think any aircraft [company] would have allowed that situation. I don’t remember where thugs of this nature flew around the world on commercial flights. We have never deported anybody on a commercial flight,” said Mr Motsoaledi.
“When we deported Congolese Papy Sukami… imagine we put that man into an aircraft with other innocent passengers on a commercial flight. I am sorry, but we cannot do that, as much as we want to save money.”
“If we did that, you members of parliament would be tearing me apart for being careless. We took the cheapest flight. This was the best option over going on a commercial flight.”
Mr Motsoaledi said that Tanzanian officials had wanted Bester and Magudumana to be handed over to immigration officials.
“They opted on deportation, not extradition or any other system,” he said.
“And when a person is deported to your country of origin, they are handed only to immigration officials of that country, not any other authorities. And the Tanzanians said they are not prepared to hand over Thabo Bester to police.”
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SA’s Justice Minister wants to remain in office despite Bester’s escape
In response to Thabo Bester‘s escape from a privately managed jail, South Africa’s Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said to MPs on Thursday that he will not step down.
Following his arrest last week in Tanzania, Bester was transported to South Africa on Thursday in a specially chartered aircraft.
For luring his victims, he is referred to as the “Facebook rapist” and uses the social networking site.
In addition to him, his girlfriend, the well-known doctor Nandipha Magudumana, was also deported after being taken into custody.
The minister expressed regret and claimed whole responsibility for the prison breach.
“I am not going to resign because I did what I was supposed to do,” Ronald Lamola told a parliamentary committee on justice.
He said the department of correctional services has a duty of ensuring inmates were kept in custody until the end of their sentences.
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Thabo Bester appears in SA court today
Thabo Bester, a South African rapist and murderer who faked his own death in prison last week before being recaptured in Tanzania, is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
New allegations against Thabo Bester include breaking and entering and violating a dead body, according to the police.
The police spokeswoman confirmed that he will appear before the Bloemfontein magistrate court, although it is unknown whether he will do so in person.
Bester was convicted in 2012 for the rape and murder of his model girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu, and he was sentenced to life in prison at the time of his escape.
He was transported to a high-security prison in the capital, Pretoria, on a specially chartered plane on Thursday after being deported from Tanzania.
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SA’s ‘Facebook rapist’ deported from Tanzania
Thabo Bester, a murderer and rapist who faked his own death in prison and escaped to Tanzania has now been deported.
Following his arrest last week in Tanzania, Bester was taken to South Africa via a specially chartered aircraft.
He was detained alongside his girlfriend, the well-known physician Nandipha Magudumana, who has since been deported.
With assisting Bester in escaping from custody, her father is accused.
Bester evaded capture for a year following the time it was believed he committed suicide by setting himself ablaze in his cell in the South African city of Bloemfontein.
A manhunt was launched last month after a new post-mortem investigation revealed the body was not actually his.
The celebrity doctor’s father, Zolile Sekeleni, and a suspended prison warden, Senohe Matsoara, have been charged with murder, arson and aiding and abetting Bester’s escape.
The two men appeared in a magistrate’s court in Bloemfontein earlier this week.
They were not asked to plead, and no further details were given of the charges.
The case was postponed to 17 April for a possible bail application.
Two other people have also been arrested in connection with Bester’s escape, but they have not yet been formally charged.
Bester has been taken to a high-security prison in the capital, Pretoria, while his girlfriend has been taken to court in Bloemfontein.
She will be charged with murder, fraud and helping Bester escape, police said.
Bester is also expected to face fresh charges following his shocking prison break.
He is known as the “Facebook rapist” for using the social networking site to lure his victims.
He was convicted in 2012 for the rape and murder of his model girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu. A year earlier, he was found guilty of raping and robbing two other women.