Pinny shares details of her prison ordeal
Mompati Tlhankane | Tuesday November 8, 2022 06:00
Pinny is the spouse to former Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP), Carter Morupisi. The stars and sun shone brighter for her after she was acquitted and discharged by the Gaborone High Court last week.
Through a statutory notice to sue issued by her lawyers Bogopa, Manewe, Tobedza & Co, Morupisi has disclosed that she was ferried from prison to court in handcuffs under heavy prison security escort armed with all sorts of weapons. She said she was made to sit at the back of a pickup truck and made to endure proper prison life.
On or about September 3, 2019, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) set in motion criminal proceedings against Pinny and her husband Carter for the offence of money laundering contrary to Section 41 (1) (b) of the Proceeds and Instruments of Crime.
The couple was dragged before the Broadhurst Magistrate's Court where they were arraigned and consequently committed to trial before the High Court. The committal was on February 7, 2020. Upon committal for trial before the High Court, Pinny was sent to the Women’s Prison in Gaborone to await her trial as a remand prisoner.
Pinny recalls that upon arrival at Women’s Prison, she was frisked and made to surrender her personal items which were deemed inappropriate for a prisoner such as her mobile phones and others. She added that she was caused to remove her clothes and ordered to put on a yellow prisoner’s outfit where she was now an admitted remand prisoner.
She said, at that moment, her prison life had begun in earnest. Pinny who is an elected councillor for the Lecheng Malaka ward in the Lerala-Maunatlala Constituency added that her ordeal was not quite over because the State was so hell-bent on embarrassing her by frustrating and actively seeking to prevent her access to her lawyer, Busang Manewe. “When my lawyer sought to consult with me in prison, he was denied access by prison officials on flimsy grounds. Prison officials claimed that they did not know who Manewe was, let alone that he was a practising attorney.
They asked him to produce one identification document after another. They initially wanted his National Identity Card (Omang) which was provided. They then demanded a Law Society Identity Card and upon learning that such a card doesn’t exist, they demanded that he go back to his office to bring proof that he is a practising attorney in the form of a practising certificate. Manewe was allowed entry into prison after a standoff and delay to serve them with a notice of set down of our bail application which was set down later that afternoon,” Pinny recalled. Pinny said what happened to her is something she had never envisaged when she arrived at Women’s Prison.
She disclosed that there was a palpable air of excitement amongst prison officials who seemingly relished the process of enrolling her as a prisoner and the prospect of her remaining as a remand prisoner for some time. Pinny added that it would appear that prison officials were frustrating Manewe’s entry into prison just to delay the process of the hearing of their bail application that afternoon. Pinny indicated that she had to undergo a whole trial which ran from September 3, 2019, until it was concluded on October 31 with her acquittal and discharge.