Sustained fight to prosecute Butterfly ensues
Mpho Mokwape | Monday July 4, 2022 06:00
The DIS and the prosecuting agency, the Directorate of Public Prosecutions want the Court of Appeal (CoA) to review the decision that was made by Justice Zein Kebonang of the Gaborone High Court last year August to acquit and discharge ‘Butterfly’ of all the charges.
The legal battle that started as far back as October 17, 2019 and regarded by many as involving alleged treasonous attempts across borders and some powerful individuals within the country, abruptly came to a short end in August 2021.
This was after Justice Kebonang dropped all charges amongst them being money laundering against the former spy officer on account that the prosecution lacked evidence against the allegations.
The State, which got heavily disgraced when the charges were dropped, now wants a second chance to save face. Before she was acquitted and discharged, the State had wanted to withdraw the charges first with liberty to reinstate after engaging South African legal hawk, Advocate Gerrie Nel. At the time, he had advised State to withdraw the charges and fresh investigations against Maswabi to be instituted.
His advice seemed to have come a little too late because at the time, the State chose to withdraw the charges there was already an application before the High Court filed by Maswabi seeking acquittal from the charges. She had filed the application seeking for the review of the charges and the decision by the State to prosecute her when they lacked evidence in the first place.
The review of the decision to prosecute and the subsequent withdrawal of charges meant that the desire of the State to have charges withdrawn with liberty to reinstate were dashed, therefore, the only way to save face was to appeal the judgement. Now the pair will be back in court as the State believes they have enough evidence to prosecute Maswabi and that they should have been given the liberty to reinstate the charges at a later stage.
It makes one wonder what the DIS is basing on because just recently the unit that is mandated to investigate Maswabi being the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) made shocking allegations that there was gross abuse of power regarding the case. The DCEC said in one of its investigations, they found out that there was, “gross abuse of power with respect to ‘Butterfly Case’ investigations.
It remains to be seen if the CoA will agree with the High Court or will come to the rescue of the DIS to go for a second prosecution against the former spy agent. Maswabi, who has been free for a while when the allegations first surfaced, was amongst others accused of having an intimate relationship with the former DIS head, Isaac Kgosi on top of being accused of having money belonging to the government in different offshore accounts. She has consistently denied the allegations.
Through her ordeal, she maintained that the State had fabricated evidence against her and was trying to ruin her. Maswabi, who through her court appearances kept the media and the public on their toes to get a clearer glimpse of the woman labelled as a ‘terrorist financier’, denied ever being in any intimate relationship let alone having signed or wired money anywhere as alleged.
She maintained that the allegations in the charge sheet and statements contained in the affidavit of the DCEC lead investigator, Jako Hubona, were defamatory as they falsely implicated her in money laundering and financing terrorism. She even demanded to get a P30 million payout from the State on grounds that the deposed affidavit by Hubona was false and defamatory.
The affidavit contained allegations, amongst others, that she was a co-signatory with other people including South African businesswoman Bridgette Motsepe-Radebe for various bank accounts held in several banks held under entities known as Blue Flies Company into which large amounts of money allegedly stolen from the Bank of Botswana (BoB) were transferred.
However, during the course of the case, the Bank of Botswana (BoB) denied ever having such large amount of funds transacted from their bank as alleged by the DIS. The case will be heard on July 20.