Tanzanian authorities have apprehended a fugitive from South Africa who had fled from a prison in South Africa by pretending to have committed suicide, The Kenya Times has learnt. After it was believed that Thabo Bester had committed suicide by lighting himself on fire while he was incarcerated, he remained at large for a whole year.
A search for the perpetrator began one month ago, following the disclosure that the body found wasn’t truly that of the deceased person.
Bester was apprehended on Friday along with his girlfriend and another suspect, and they are all going to be deported to South Africa.
According to the police, they have reason to suspect the three intended to exit the country via the neighboring country of Kenya.
#PoliceMinistry [MEDIA STATEMENT] Minister of Police and Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, confirm that escapee #ThaboBester with his accomplice Dr Nandipha Maguduma along with Mozambican national have been arrested in Tanzania. NPhttps://t.co/lj0mxvXfiq pic.twitter.com/UAWt6qtze2
— SA Police Service 🇿🇦 (@SAPoliceService) April 8, 2023
Bester has earned the nickname “Facebook rapist” due to the fact that he frequently recruits his victims through the use of the social networking site.
Also Read: Gunmen Kill Eight at Birthday Party in South Africa
In 2012, he was found guilty of raping and killing his model girlfriend, Nomfundo Tyhulu.
The crime was a sentence to life in prison for Thabo. A verdict of guilty was rendered against him a year earlier for the rape and robbery of two additional victims.
Around the beginning of May, it was announced that his body had been discovered in his cell at the Mangaung Correctional Complex in the city of Bloemfontein. It was believed that he had presumably burned himself to death.
The ‘Facebook Rapist’
Dubbed the “Facebook rapist” Bester allegedly lured victims on the social media platform before raping and robbing them. At least one victim was killed.
Late in 2017, however, members of the local media started expressing skepticism regarding Bester’s supposed death.
After additional testing proved that the deceased individual was not Bester and that the unidentified person had died from blunt-force trauma to the head, the police began a new murder inquiry in the month of March.
Workers of the security organization G4S, which is owned and operated by the British government and managed the jail where he was being kept, have been accused of assisting him in his escape.
According to what has been stated, the incident resulted in the termination of three employees.
Representatives for the organization were supposed to attend a hearing in parliament earlier this week concerning Bester’s escape, but they did not show up. In an effort to obtain comment, the BBC has contacted G4S.
There have been many sightings reported of Bester over the past year, including allegations that he was food shopping in an affluent area of Johannesburg and that he was living in a rented mansion there.
In South Africa, which has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world, the news that Bester had gotten away provoked widespread fury.