One of South Africa's most notorious rapists and murderers, Thabo Bester, has taken court action to block Netflix from broadcasting a documentary about his life - including how he allegedly faked his death and escaped from prison.
His lawyers argued that Beauty and the Bester was defamatory, but the streaming giant defended its plan to release the three-part investigation.
Bester's partner, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, features in the documentary, having allegedly helped him escape. She is part of the court bid to halt the release.
The High Court is expected to give its ruling about 30 minutes before the documentary's planned release to a global audience on Friday.
Bester was convicted in 2012 for the rape and murder of his model girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu. A year earlier, he was found guilty of raping and robbing two other women.
Bester became known as the Facebook rapist for using the social networking site to lure his victims.
He was serving a life sentence when he allegedly escaped from a maximum-security prison in 2022. A fire broke out in the prison, with authorities finding a charred body they initially believed was Bester's, but it later turned out to be someone else.
Undetected for a year, Bester allegedly lived under an alias in Johannesburg, aided by his partner. The couple were arrested while attempting to flee in Tanzania in April 2023 and were subsequently deported to South Africa.
Currently in custody, they await trial on multiple charges, including violating a corpse, defeating the ends of justice, and fraud, without having pleaded to these charges yet.
Bester's lawyer claimed the documentary infringed on his client's right to a fair trial. He argued that there was no proof of Bester's escape and that the show's provocative title was deliberately defamatory.
Conversely, Netflix's legal representative asserted that the documentary empowers Bester's victims by providing them a platform to voice their experiences. Judge Sulet Potterill has asked Netflix when it plans to release the documentary and will issue her ruling soon.
Bester's alleged escape has generated international headlines and sparked outrage in South Africa, notorious for high rates of sexual assault.
