The state has revealed in court that it is only a matter of time before they slap Former President Ian Khama with criminal charges related to looting government coffers.
State prosecutor Priscilla Israel said this when answering to a question from defence lawyer, Unoda Mack on why they have charged a Directorate of Intelligence Services( DIS) spy agent Welhemina Mphoeng Maswabi with aiding terrorism and not the former president and former Directorate of Intelligent Serivices Isaac Kgosi who are heavily implicated in the matter.
“Let’s deal with the accused now (Maswabi) we will deal and charge those you talk of later. They will answer to the state when their time comes, we are dealing with her (Maswabi) now,” Israel said in open court.
She further stressed; “Isaac Kgosi and Sir Seretse Khama are implicated in this case of stealing money from Government.” Maswabi who apperared in court on Tuesday was allegedly found with P420 billion in her offshore accounts.
Meanwhile on Friday president Ian Khama had said in an interview that he was aware that government was working around the clock to concoct criminal charges against him.
Asked if he had any fears of possible criminal charges that could be laid against him now that the election period was over, Khama said, “It is not a fear, it is a fact, even prior to elections I was reliably informed that after elections, they will come up with some trumped up charges against me.”
Khama further revealed that last week Friday a mutual friend phoned Masisi to congratulate him, and in the conversation Masisi talked about how he was going to fix him (Khama).
Asked what illegal activity he would be charged for, the former President declined to comment. “I know it is coming; Masisi knows I know so I wait and see.”
The Voice further asked Khama if he will ever send a congratulatory message to President Masisi following the BDP win and he said, “Let’s wait and see if that will happen. Ask me that question after we have heard what the courts would say.”
The former president went on to confirm that the Umbrella For Democratic Change and the Botswana Patriotic Front, which he is a patron of, would take the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to court.
“As you are aware there are court cases which are being brought to challenge the election result, because those issues are coming to court that will certainly reveal whether the elections were free and fair. We have never seen that degree of irregularities, no election will not have a few hitches, there will always been something here or there that would have been a genuine mistake, with these there is so much going on leading to these court cases,” he stated.
Asked what they meant by irregularities he said, “I could not mention because I have a list of those but I won’t want to say for now because they are going to court.”
The former president campaigned heavily before the October 23rd elections, especially in the central region where he addressed about five to six rallies per day in a bid to sway voters away from the ruling party to the opposition and to his new party, The Botswana Patriotic Front.
Commenting on his campaign, which yielded three MPS and 22 councillors in the central district, Khama said, “Well, but the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) at one point had no problem with me being their chief campaigner, oh, so now that I am with the opposition it’s a problem? It is an open republic; I am a citizen of this country.”
Quizzed further on how he would be spending his time now that election season was over, Khama said, “I was associated a lot with political campaigning, but I have still been up to my conservation, my farming, my charity work of course there are other things I was doing which Masisi took away from me, so I will continue with the charitable work and also my association with the tribe as the chief.”
Providing clarity on what he meant by ” association with Bangwato”, he said, “Having been in office and taking up another government paid job is something which has its question marks, I don’t have to be in the office performing matters of tribal administration, I don’t have to be there I can just be the figure head but we will wait and see.”
It’s a shame that the prosecution is being led by a person who has no respect for the rights of the accused and a human rights abuser. The woman is cruel and will lie in court and manipulate facts and the presiding officer. Israel, over the years, has destroyed the rule of law in Botswana and all lawyers know this. She is no prosecutor but persecutor. Let not the case be tainted and to achieve a fair trial she must not be allowed to represent the state and she is not legally sound in any case.