However, despite not having any official death penalty moratorium in place, the country has not carried out any executions since the 1990s and is therefore considered de facto abolitionist.
[3][4] Although Lesotho is de facto abolitionist, the country is not a signatory or a party to any of the United Nations protocols that would signify their commitment to abolishing the death penalty, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR pertaining to the abolition of the death penalty within each signatory's borders.
[8] On 9 February 1962, a group of eight people - four men and four women - kidnapped a two-year-old girl from her home and kept her in another village for two weeks, torturing her before they murdered her.
On 5 March 1963, the Basutoland News reported that the High Court in Maseru had sentenced all eight people to death on 8 February 1963.
The Lesotho Court of Appeals upheld the appellants' death sentences in June of the same year.
[6] Lesotho reported to the United Nations Human Rights Council that the last execution they carried out was in 1995.
The High Court's ruling followed the conviction of an unnamed defendant for committing a sexual offense while knowingly being HIV-positive.