Thabo Bester asks court to relax prison conditions
Convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester has appealed to the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein to relax his prison conditions.
The so-called Facebook rapist and his co-accused appeared in court on Wednesday morning.
He is on trial for escaping from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022.
Bester's request follows a legal challenge against the alleged inhumane detention conditions at Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre in Tshwane.
In his statement released on Tuesday, Bester said he had been subjected to severe violations of his constitutional rights, particularly Section 35 of the Constitution, which talks about the right to a fair trial.
He is also unhappy about being in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in a room with a small window.
Bester's request includes allowing him to use electronic devices, such as a laptop or tablet, to prepare for his trial.
Responding to these requests, Free State High Court Deputy Judge President Cagney Musi said he would assign a judge to hear Bester out once all his papers are in order.
"I do not want to enter into a further debate with you, make sure that you file your replying affidavit, heads of argument. In terms of the rules of this court, a judge will be assigned to deal with the matter, and you can go and ventilate all these things In front of the judge.
"I will assign a judge to listen to your entire argument. That judge will listen to your argument when the papers are ripe.”
However, Bester's legal representative, Advocate Lerato Moela, told the court that it is unfair to select some parts of the jurisdiction application and elevate them above others.
Moela said the issue of jurisdiction should be determined by the criminal court and not the motion court.
"This particular court must determine its own jurisdiction. If we are wrong in that aspect, then the court will chase us, and we will gladly leave.
"Truly speaking and with the utmost respect, it is unfair to select certain paragraphs in the affidavit and say this application is about that, when the applicant himself says the entire application is about this aspect, the rest of the aspect he's inviting the court to adopt an intersectional analysis which is not foreign in our constitutional dispensation,” Moela said.
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