Mbabane - The bail application for a jailed Swazi magazine editor and a prominent human rights lawyer was deferred on Wednesday, amid wrangling over court procedures.
Bheki Makhubu, editor of The Nation, and Thulani Maseko, an executive member of Lawyers for Human Rights Swaziland, have been in custody since March.
The pair were sentenced to two years in prison after being found in contempt of court.
They had published articles critical of the chief justice and the lack of impartiality in the authoritarian kingdom's justice system.
Supreme Court Judge Ahmed Ebrahim on Wednesday said the proper procedure had not been followed in lodging the bail application.
“A full legal process has to be followed. Let's exhaust the process in terms of the law,” he said.
Makhubu and Maseko's case has drawn international attention, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Robert F. Kennedy Center, Freedom House and others lobbying King Mswati III for their release.
In court Wednesday Judge Ebrahim called on lawyers to cut out “publicity and public slanging, its not helping the system, not helping the accused either.”
Sapa-AFP