01 Nov 2019

Senior intelligence officer at the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS), Welheminah Maswabi has had her remand warrant extended by Broadhurst’s Magistrate Gaseitsiwe Tonoki during a brief appearance on Friday.
This followed a plea by the prosecution that the state was yet to receive responses for the assistance it had sought from some countries that it had deemed necessary for the conduct of its investigations.
Ms Keletso Mfosi from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had told the court that the prosecution had made several mutual legal assistance requests to other countries, among which she cited South Africa, Germany and Hong Kong, but that none had so far responded.
Earlier, the prosecutor had applied that the hearing be held in camera as had been the case in the October 18 appearance, but the magistrate had asked if the order that had been issued then had not been overtaken by events, a question to which Ms Mfosi had said the prosecution was amenable to whatever position would take.
Magistrate Tonoki then ruled that the matter proceed in an open court.
When addressing court, Ms Phatsimo Mphetolang, the attorney representing Maswabi, requested that the prosecution avail a complete list of the countries from which mutual legal assistance had been sought to help the defence get a clear picture of how long it would take for the investigations to be completed.
In addition, Ms Mphetolang made a follow-up on the request for a typed record of court proceedings for the October 18 hearing that the defence had made to the court.
The record, she indicated, would help the defence decide how best to proceed with the case.
Maswabi, code-named Butterfly, faces charges of possession of unexplained property, financing terrorism, and false declaration of passport.
In the first count, the accused is alleged to have, between December 1, 2018 and October 17 this year, been found in possession of sums of money disproportionate with her present or past known sources of income.
In the offence of financing terrorism, the state alleges that Maswabi, whose other identity documents indicate that she is also called Lorato Hilton, in the period between December 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019 transferred P32.4 million ((P32 402 015) (US$2 950 000) to former DISS director general Isaac Kgosi.
The transfer of funds, it is alleged, was done with the intent to facilitate the commission of an act of terrorism by Kgosi, whom the prosecution says had threatened to commit acts of terror against the Republic of Botswana.
In the final count, the accused is alleged to have, in June 2013, uttered a false statement to an immigration officer by stating her names to be Lorato Hilton when applying for a passport when she knew that to be false. She will appear for another mention on November 14. ENDS