09 Aug 2022

A convicted burglar, Temogo Radidiba was on Friday spared nine strokes imposed by the magistrate court.

The serving convict, was spared the corporal punishment after he approached the country’s Supreme Court requesting it to set aside the nine strokes imposed on him by the magistrate’s court, which had convicted him for burglary and stealing from a dwelling house.

The magistrate court had sentenced him to seven years and three years’ imprisonment, which were to run concurrently.

In addition, Radidiba was to receive corporal punishment of nine strokes after undergoing medical assessment.

In his appeal, Radidiba argued that the seven and three years imprisonment meant that the imprisonment term was effectively 10 years.

He submitted that this was a long period of imprisonment and asked the court to set aside the corporal punishment sentence as it was undesirable.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Godfrey Radijeng of the Court of Appeal said the imposition of a long sentence, coupled with corporal punishment, was not appropriate if it was not expressly mandated.

He said the effective sentence to be served by Radidiba in both counts was 10 years and the court had consistently referred to the undesirability of imposition of corporal punishment, together with long sentences.

Justice Radijeng said, he was of the view that Radidiba’s effective 10-year sentence was long, hence the appeal should succeeded.

“The appeal succeeds to the extent that the sentence imposed by the trial court for the appellant to receive nine strokes of corporal punishment in respect of count one is set aside,” he stated.

The case was before Justices Radijeng, Sigh Walia and Mercy Garekwe. ENDS