23 Apr 2018

The outgoing Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo on Thursday sentenced five men accused of the Gaborone North farms armed robbery and murder case to effective term of 10 years and 15 years respectively.

The sentence comes after Justice Dibotelo convicted them of the charges the previous day but however held that the murder was not premediated thus murder with extenuating circumstances.

“The sentences of 10 years and 15 years in count one and two shall run concurrently, and in computing the terms of imprisonment, the period each accused person spent in custody before sentenced shall be discounted,” he said.

He ordered that the amount of P12 200 and P3 080, pellet gun and DELL laptop be returned to Tuwana Construction and the rest of the exhibits be forfeited to the state for destruction. In addition Justice Dibotelo informed each of the accused that they had the right to appeal to the Court of Appeal against the conviction and sentence within six weeks .

Standing trial were Lebang Thabo Ntesi, Phemelo Tshelang, Gorata Sebego, Patrick Gaile and Mpho Mangwa. All the accused have been on bail except for Ntesi and Mangwa.

According to the particulars of the offence, the five men who are all residents of Oodi, on the night of August 28, 2013 at Gaborone North farms acting together with a common purpose murdered night watchman, Mr Olebogile Ramapulane, who was guarding at Tuwana Construction Site camp.

In the course of robbery, they stole items such as cellphones, a Chinese identity card, a laptop, a laptop charger and a diary. All items were admitted before court as part of evidence.

They were initially charged for attempted murder of Mr Liu Jian Hui. During attempt on his life, Liu was gravely injured and got admitted at Princess Marina Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. He however left the country making it impossible to continue with the charge.

The accused are therefore now facing only two counts and on the first count the five were charged for armed robbery as the sum of P20 000, a computer lap top, a navy blue blazer and a cellphone were stolen during the commission of the crime. They pleaded not guilty to the charge. Likewise they pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.

Interestingly during trial, some of the accused while giving evidence in chief and under cross examination admitted to have been present at the scene of crime at the material time and took active role in the commission of the crimes.

The prosecution team from the DPP is made of Messrs Farayi Mahwite and Sharpe Dubula while defence team is made of Ms Wema Isa who is now with BOCRA, Mr Isiah Letlole, Mr Maswabi Mwando Maswabi, Mr Eddie Babuseng and Ms Bokani Machinya. ENDS