26 Jan 2016

A defence lawyer in the murder case of ex Fairgrounds Holding chief executive officer, Mr Michael Montshiwa has registered concern with the Gaborone Village Magistrate Court that his client was subjected to unfair treatment by the investigating team.

Mr Kgosietsile Ngakaagae told a packed courtroom that his client was on January 9, 2016 detained by Gaborone West Police officers where he had gone to report himself at the station as per the conditions of his bail.

He said Modise David, who was also subjected to torture threats when he chose to remain silent, was only released at around lunch time after his house was searched.

He said what makes matters worse was that David's cellphone was also confiscated and was further made to ride in a police vehicle because he was denied the use of his private vehicle at the time when the police were doing their investigations around.

The court further heard that on January 24, 2016 David's housemate was taken in by the police for questioning and when the police could not get anything which incriminated David, they accosted him to write a statement which could incriminate him. For the favour, he said they promised a reward of P15 000.

Attorney Ngakaagae further told the court that there were two more people who have been previously offered the same reward of P15 000 if they could record some incriminating statements against David. 

He therefore said this was a worrying development and promised that he would approach the police high command.

Meanwhile, Ngakaagae said he would see whether he could institute both criminal and civil recourse regarding the bad treatment of his client.

The state prosecutor, Mr Ernest Mosate said the allegations made by the defence attorney were serious and were meant to tarnish the image of the police which has been diligently doing a good job. He said such allegations should be expunged from the record. However, Mr Ngakaagae said should the state adopt such a stance he would call his client to take the witness stand and tell the court what transpired during the day in question.

 

David and two other accused not before the court are charged for the death of Montshiwa which happened on October 18, 2015 at his residence in Block 6, Gaborone. He will come to court for another mention on March 15, 2016 to give investigators more time to carry out their investigations. Ends