The habeus corpus application for the release of Zinjiva Nkondo was dismissed with costs in the Bloemfontein Supreme Court in March and the case was taken to appeal. Nkondo was due to stand trial in June.
On 14 May, however, charges against Nkondo were dropped in a surprise announcement from the state in a Bloemfontein Supreme Court hearing. He was then escorted by South African police to the Lesotho border.
It is understood that the release followed successful negotiations between the Lesotho and South African governments. The application for Nkondo's release, brought by his brother, was supported by affidavits from Lesotho officials. According to the Permanent Secretary for Civil Aviation, there is an agreement between South Africa and Lesotho allowing air travellers free passage to Lesotho should aircraft be forced to land on South African territory. In the court hearings, legal representatives for the respondents denied that such an agreement existed.
A Lesotho official who travelled on the same flight as Nkondo on 12 December stated that the treatment accorded the passengers was grossly humiliating and injurious. Two South African policemen trained machine guns on the passengers when the Air Lesotho plane landed at Bloemfontein owing to bad weather.
