Lesotho's former prime minister Thomas Thabane and his wife paid assassins a down payment of $24 000 (about R400 000) to kill his estranged wife Lipolelo three years ago, according to a police affidavit seen on Wednesday.
Thabane and his then wife Lipolelo Thabane, 58, were in the middle of a bitter divorce when she was shot and killed outside her home two days before her husband's 2017 inauguration.
Thabane has not yet been charged, but the police said he was involved in the plot to kill Lipolelo using hired killers and his wife Maesaiah is in custody accused of murder.
In an affidavit filed on Tuesday but seen by AFP on Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Paseka Mokete said Thabane and Maesaiah "wanted the deceased dead so that (Maesaiah) ...could assume the position of First Lady".
"They would be remunerated in cash... and through employment opportunities, should they carry out the murder of the deceased prior to (Thabane's) inauguration as prime minister," Mokete said.
