Tanzania deports South African fugitive who faked own death in prison fire

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - Tanzanian authorities on Thursday deported a South African fugitive who faked his death in prison and fled to the East African nation.

Thabo Bester, popularly known as the “Facebook rapist”, for luring his victims through the social media network, was arrested last week along with his girlfriend in Tanzania.

He was serving a life sentence when he escaped from a South African prison last May.

The 35-year-old had been convicted for the rape and murder of his model girlfriend in 2012. He was also found guilty in 2013 of raping and robbing two other women.

Authorities launched a search for Bester in March after a new autopsy report found the man who died in the prison cell was not actually Bester, forcing him and his girlfriend to go on the run.

A parliamentary hearing on Wednesday was told that prison guards had helped Bester fake his own death by smuggling a corpse into his prison cell which was set alight and it was later claimed he had died by committing suicide.

Authorities said the prison escape exposed weakness in the country’s security prison run by a private British security firm G4S.

Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola told reporters that Bester’s girlfriend Dr. Nandipha Magudumana faces several charges – including aiding and abetting the escape, murder and fraud. She is expected to make her first court appearance on Thursday.

Magudumana’s father and a suspended prison guard accused of aiding the escape were charged with murder, arson and other offenses earlier this week.