DIS was out to humiliate me – Matsheka
Mpho Mokwape | Monday July 31, 2023 06:00
He is gunning for a staggering P19,160,800 in damages, among other things, for unlawful arrest, detention, and special damages in the form of legal fees and loss of income.
Matsheka was a suspect in Standard One pupil, Tlotso Karema's murder which grabbed national attention and headlines in 2022 as the agency alleged his involvement during his arrest. Matsheka, the former Finance minister who was arrested early last August by the DIS and police officers, says he endured humiliating and degrading treatment at the hands of the spy unit thereby suffering a loss of reputation and dignity.
In a lawsuit filed on June 29, Matsheka says he has every right to sue as he was arrested without any cause and treated like a dangerous criminal despite the DIS agents knowing that the arrest was wrong and unlawful.
“I am entitled to seek orders declaring that my right to personal liberty, protection against degrading treatment, and that of the law has been violated by acts of officers who under the orders of the Director General of the DIS, Peter Magosi, and the Police Commissioner were at the material time acting in the ordinary course and scope of their duties,” he said.
The ruling party legislator explains that the humiliation was enough to make him suffer impairment to his dignity and reputation as a consequence of wrongs of wrongful and unlawful arrest as well as being detained. According to his lawsuit, he wants damages broken down as follows:
Damages
* P2m for unlawful arrest * P3m for unlawful detention * P4m in respect of the wrong of placing leg shackles on him * P1m in respect of the wrong of being forced to sit in the dock at the High Court.
Special damages
* P600,000 for legal expenses
* P8,560,800m for prospective loss of income
Further on his claim, Matsheka wants the cost of the suit and other alternative relief. Not only does the businessman-cum-politician want damages in monetary form but he also wants the court to make declaratory orders as follows:
* Declaring that an arrest effected on him by members of the DIS officers, their support staff and the Botswana Police Service at his residence in Partial Gaborone on August 2, 2022, at or about 7pm was wrongful, unlawful, and injurious.
* Declaring that DIS officers and support staff who arrested him did not possess the power under the Intelligence and Security Service Act or any other law to arrest him under the circumstances for the offence he was alleged to have committed.
* Declaring that his detention at the police station(s) under the overall charge of the Commissioner of Police and at the DIS facility at Gaborone for a period of August 2 at or about 7pm to August 7, 2022, at or about 4:30pm was wrongful, unlawful, and injurious.
* Declaring that the act of placing leg shackles on him by officers of the DIS, support staff and the police at the High Court in Lobatse on August 6 and 7, 2022, when he was an accused person was without justifiable cause, wrongful, unlawful, degrading, humiliating, and injurious to him. Matsheka was among three prominent individuals arrested by the DIS. Others are Peleng East councillor, Ontiretse Mosimanewamacha and businessman, Thuso Mantsi, who were arrested following speculation that they were being questioned in connection with the death of six-year-old Tlotso.
Following the arrest at that time, the legislator issued a statutory notice giving the State one-month notice to pay him the sum of P10,720,000 in general damages for among others unlawful arrest and unlawful detention saying failure to which he was going to take legal action. In the notice that was directed to the Attorney General dated August 19, 2022, Matsheka said he was humiliated and his feelings injured when he was unlawfully arrested and an impression was made to the public that he was a dangerous criminal.
“The arrest was effected without a warrant on the suspicion that I have committed the offence of murder when the DIS officers did not have reasonable cause to believe that I have committed the alleged offence,” he said at the time. Matsheka believed that in terms of the Intelligence and Security Service Act, an officer or support staff authorised on behalf of the Director General of DIS was only empowered, without a warrant, to arrest a person if he or she reasonably suspects that the person has committed or was about to commit an offence provided for in the Act. The notice explained that the crime of murder was not under the Act therefore the officers had no right to subject him to such humiliation of unlawful arrest.
“Videos, pictures, and accounts of the arrest were subsequently published on various social media platforms,” he said. Meanwhile, the brief facts are that at or about 7pm on August 2, 2022, at house number 5412 Partial, Gaborone, in full view of members of the public and journalists, certain officers were acting in the normal course and scope of their employment and arrested the MP allegedly without a warrant. Following the said incident, his wife, Veronica Matsheka, filed an urgent application demanding his immediate release.