State admits submiiting unverified evidence in Butterfly case
A little over a month since charging DISS agent, Wheleminah Maswabi with aiding terrorism, the state has not yet verified and authenticated documents sumbitted in court as incriminating evidence against her.
Maswabi, codenamed Butterfly appeared in court on Wednesday for the first time without heavy escort after being granted bail. In a surprising turn of events state senior lawyer Priscilla Israel admitted that some of the documents that they had presented in court as evidence were not yet authenticated.
“Investigations are still ongoing. We have just signed mutual legal assistance with some countries. We need for the documents to be authenticated so they can be admissible as evidence in court during trial, “said Israel.
In response defense lawyer, Uyapo Ndadi said,“The state does not seem to know what they are doing. The moment a person is charged the public already deems them guilty. They suffer irreparable damage as the state keeps on shifting goal posts.”
Ndadi continued, “No one held a gun against the state to lay charges, they had their time, and they still have time. All we ask is for them to drop the charges and conclude their investigations. My client is not going anywhere.”
HE further pointed out that his client was being unfairly prosecuted because in one of the counts she is accused of aiding Isaac Kgosi to commit terrorism and yet Kgosi has not even been declared a terrorist let alone be charged with terrorism.
“According to the law the President must make a declaration that so and so is a terrorist, and it should be gazette. Kgosi has not been charged or convicted of any act, I do not know why my client is facing such a crime?” Ndadi asked.
Answering back, Israel said, “Yes Isaac Kgosi has not been declared a terrorist, that is an argument for another day, which we will address.”
The case continues next year February 7th when the state is expected to prove why charges against Butterfly should not be dropped.
The state, through senior prosecutor Israel is still adamant that the fact they did not oppose bail does not mean acknowledgement of any wrong doing on their part nor does it mean and admission that they fabricated evidence as alleged by defense lawyer.
“The only reason why the state lawyers at the time did not oppose bail was because I was not there. We will submit all the paper work that is needed but I am only available next year March,” Israel said.
