30 Oct 2019

The Gaborone High Court on October 29 denied Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) computer programmer Welheminah Maswabi, popularly known by her codename ‘Butterfly’, bail.

 Judge Christopher Gabanagae did not immediately pronounce the reasons for his determination, saying they would be provided later, after he had listened to arguments from Maswabi’s legal team, led by Unoda Mack and Uyapo Ndadi, as well as the state led by Priscilla Israel of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.

Maswabi, 46, who has another identity as 39-year-old Lorato Hilton, is accused of possession of unexplained property; financing terrorism having transferred US $2 950 000 (around P32 million at current exchange rates) to former DIS director general Isaac Kgosi, who in January threatened to commit acts of terror against the country; and false declaration of passport.

Arguing for bail,  Mr Mack said his client had not committed any offence and that the state was proceeding on a litany of baseless allegations.

He said in the heads of arguments, the state had furnished the court with numerous bank accounts allegedly held by Maswabi but  provided no proof from any commercial bank while the names of signatories of the accounts were also not availed.

No official statement from Bank of Botswana had been provided to prove the paper trail of the alleged transfers and the state had not given sufficient proof that Maswabi was indeed Lorato Hilton.

The state was operating on “turning suspicions into facts” but without adequate proof of the allegations, there was nothing to prove that she had acted unlawfully therefore Maswabi should not be denied her constitutional right to bail, Mack argued.

On behalf of the respondents, Israel said the allegations against Maswabi were of a serious nature; and if granted bail, she could tamper with investigations and was a flight risk since she was in possession of different passports, including a diplomatic passport she acquired while in the employ of DIS.

Israel said there had been sufficient reasonable suspicion placed before court that Maswabi had acted in a suspicious manner in handling different offshore bank accounts in Europe, Asia, and the United States and had in her personal accounts funds amounting to US$ 390 million (P4.2 billion).

The state further alleged that Maswabi had started operating such accounts under the instruction of former President Lt Gen Ian Khama and her former DIS superior Kgosi, and that South African mining magnate Bridgette Motsepe-Radebe had been one of her collaborators in the South African accounts she handled.

The court heard that, according to information gathered from her DIS colleagues, Maswabi had an “intimate love relationship” with Kgosi, they had travelled together and shared a room on DIS assignments, and she was given preferential treatment, including being provided with a diplomatic passport for which she did not qualify at D4 scale.

She is also said to have travelled extensively to different countries, 18 in Europe, 17 in Africa, 13 in Asia, as well as five in the Americas and she returned five full passports owing to her extensive traveling.

After the unsuccessful bid for bail, the case will now continue with Maswabi remanded in custody.ENDS