Convicted South African criminal, Thabo Bester, has failed in his attempt to stop Netflix from airing a documentary on his life, which delves into his alleged faked death and dramatic prison escape.
Bester’s legal team argued that the three-part series, Beauty and the Bester, was defamatory.
Netflix, however, defended its decision to broadcast the investigation.
Bester’s partner, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, who allegedly assisted in his escape, was also involved in the court bid to block the release.
Delivering the judgment on Friday, a judge stated that the rape case was “firmly in the public domain” and concluded that the petitioners had failed to prove their request was urgent.
She clarified, however, that the couple would still have the option to pursue defamation claims after the documentary airs. The series was released just hours after the ruling.
Bester, convicted in 2012 for the rape and murder of his model girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu, had earlier been found guilty in 2011 of raping and robbing two other women.
He earned the nickname the “Facebook rapist” for targeting victims through social media.
At the time of his alleged escape in 2022, Bester was serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison.
Authorities initially believed a charred body discovered after a prison fire was his, but it was later confirmed to be someone else.
For a year, Bester reportedly lived under an alias in Johannesburg with the assistance of Magudumana.
The two were arrested in Tanzania in April 2023 and deported to South Africa, where they remain in custody, facing charges including violating a corpse, defeating the ends of justice, and fraud. They have yet to enter pleas.
The pair had approached the court to halt the documentary, claiming it would infringe on their right to a fair trial.
Judge Sulet Potterill dismissed the urgency of their applications, describing it as a “self-created urgency.”
She noted that Bester and Magudumana “waited until the last minute” despite having sufficient time to file earlier.
The judge emphasized that substantive legal remedies, such as defamation suits, remain available.
“A defamation claim can be instituted and damages sought. I cannot find in any way that the screening of the utterances they find to make the doctor guilty affects her right to a fair trial,” she ruled.
