08 Mar 2016

The long awaited trial in which four men are accused of stealing two government vehicles in 2015 failed to go on as scheduled on Monday.

It turned out that the new trial magistrate had not yet reported at his station; Village Magistrate Court.

The matter had been stood down before to allow the defence and the prosecution to contact the office of the incoming chief magistrate to enquire when he would be available.

In view of this development, the prosecution, the defence and Principal Magistrate Goodwill Makofi, who heard the matter during mention, agreed to postpone the trial to April 29. 

The trial, according to prosecutor, Mrs Priscilla Israel, from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), was to run for two weeks, from March 7 to 18. 

The accused persons, Oteng Helman Pule, Modisaotsile Rentse, Thabo Seswai aka Killer and Nadeem Khan, faced two counts of theft of motor vehicle. 

Mrs Israel indicated to the court that Bib Rasul and his wife, Sayed Rasul, who were initially charged for the same offence, had since turned into accomplice witnesses.

According to the charge sheet, the accused on or about July 30, 2015 at or near Botswana Defence Force, Glen Valley Camp in Gaborone, acting together in concert and with a common purpose, stole a white Ford Ranger 2.2 registration number B 869 AYV (BX 14 1501) valued at P243, 635.84 and a white Toyota Land Cruiser registration number B 273 AYG (BX 14 0865) valued at P357, 403. Mr Peter Williams represented Rentse while Mr Unoda Mack represented Khan. ENDS