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Alert

Editor faces defamation suit

(MISA/IFEX) - The editor-in-chief of the fortnightly Lesotho Police Service tabloid "Leseli Ka Sepolesa", Clifford Molefe, has been served with a court summons by Mohau Thakaso, the former Lesotho Football Association's (LEFA) public relations officer, demanding a staggering M3,000,000 (approx. US$422,000) in damages for defamation.

Thakaso claims Molefe defamed him in his column which appeared in a July 2004 publication, and in which Molefe opined that Thakaso's unsubstantiated allegations of cheating by LEFA could have been just a plot to bring LEFA into disrepute.

Thakaso, who had defected from LEFA to form a new football association, made porous allegations of corruption and mismanagement against LEFA after his controversial resignation from the football governing body's executive committee.

Molefe has been ordered by his superiors at Police Services not to disclose any information pertaining to the summons as they feel the indictment is indirectly aimed at them as the publishers of "Leseli Ka Sepolesa". The date for a hearing has not yet been set.