Overview

• Judge Sulet Potterill dismissed Thabo Bester and Dr. Nandipha Magudumana’s urgent application, saying the case was "firmly in the public domain."
• Netflix released the three-part series Beauty and the Bester within hours of the ruling.
• The applicants argued the documentary was defamatory and threatened their fair-trial rights, a claim the judge said could be tested later in a civil suit.
• Bester was sentenced to life in 2012 for crimes that included luring victims on Facebook and he faces additional charges tied to his 2022 prison escape and 2023 recapture in Tanzania.
• Police are investigating the killing of Katlego Bereng Mpholo, identified as the man found in Bester’s cell, after an autopsy indicated fatal blunt-force head trauma before the body was burned.