Pinny sues State for P4.2m over malicious prosecution
Mompati Tlhankane | Monday November 7, 2022 06:00
Morupisi whose husband Carter Morupisi was found guilty on three charges feels that the criminal justice system was weaponised by the State to punish her as an innocent citizen.
Morupisi now wants the State to pay P760,000 in legal fees to defend the ‘ trumped-up’ charges, P2 million for humiliation, embarrassment, loss of dignity, and half a million each for wrongful imprisonment, pain, suffering and hurt, and general damages.
Through her lawyers Bogopa, Manewe, Tobedza & Co, Morupisi issued a statutory notice to sue in respect of herself and her company R7 Group (Pty) Ltd against the Attorney General (AG) representing the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) arising from the criminal trial. Morupisi says she suffered immense reputational damage as an innocent citizen, a leader, a mother, a wife, a politician, and a human being as a result of the malicious conduct of the DPP in knowingly pressing trumped-up charges against her.
Morupisi added that she was ferried from prison to court in handcuffs with a heavy escort of prison officers armed with all sorts of weapons. She said she was made to sit at the back of a pickup truck and made to feel proper prison life.
“Our client was paraded in full view of national television cameras and journalists from both private and public media houses and in no time her photographs and video footage in handcuffs went viral across the world's media. Client was trending in all media and became the butt of nasty jokes, insults, humiliation, abuse, and defamation as she was tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. Client had to undergo a whole trial which ran from September 3, 2019, until it was concluded on October 2022 with her discharge and acquittal. We have to point out that our client is a practising politician who won elections in the 2019 General Election to become a councillor. She is, therefore, a community leader and a public figure.” Morupisi says during the trial, she was paraded outside the court and this happened in full view of the public and media in the parking lot of the Gaborone High Court. She says it was dramatic and calculated for maximum damage to her reputation and spirit.
She also pointed out that she was made to sit on uncomfortable benches in the dock and at one point she asked through her lawyer for a comfortable chair and the request was declined allegedly on the reasoning that they do not want to give an impression that she was being given preferential treatment as an accused person. Morupisi indicated that the prosecutors did so to spite her for what they called as her refusal to cooperate with them. Pinny added that she was charged to force her to turn a state witness against her husband and at one point she was approached by prosecutors who sort to drop charges against her on condition that she cooperated with them. She concluded that the DPP should be ordered to issue a written apology for knowingly and without any good cause setting the criminal justice system on an innocent individual.