Long incarceration will rob me of my freedom – Sepopa
Sharon Mathala | Friday September 8, 2023 14:13
Double murder accused Mogomotsi Sepopa has filed an urgent application asking the High Court to overturn the lower court’s decision to deny him bail. Sepopa is accused of killing his wife, Bogolo Sepopa and another woman, his junior Same Moapare. It is alleged that Sepopa shot and killed the two women at his home at the Village BDF garrison back on July 17, 2023.
According to his fresh application, the BDF soldier holding the rank of Captain, says he was arrested in Gaborone on July 17, 2023 and has been incarcerated since then. He also says the prosecution then moved an order to remand him.
“On the day of arraignment, I did mot motivate an application for bail. The basis for my not seeking admission to bail was to accord the prosecution time to conduct its investigations without the remotest possibility of interference,” he says. He says on August 1, 2023, he appeared for the second time before Extension II Magistrate's Court where he says he then instructed his lawyer to now apply for bail.
“Her worship, unfortunately for me, declined to entertain the application on the basis that the substantive prosecutor and the investigating officer were not in attendance. Bail hearing was thus by her worship's order deferred to the 7th August 2023,” he states. Sepopa states that the lower court determined that he should not be granted bail despite the State not opposing his application.
The court ruled that it was not safe for him to be granted bail because there was public outrage and that his bail would be insensitive to the loss of the lives of the victims in the public eye. The court also ruled that he ought to be taken for psychiatric assessment. Now, to the High Court, Sepopa says: “It can never be said, I respectfully submit that notwithstanding the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, I be detained to protect me from harm by the public. Neither can it, I must add, be contended that notwithstanding the presumption of sanity, consideration of my admission to bail be dependent, firstly on my psychiatrist assessment.” Sepopa further says he is the one who handed himself to the police.
“I am the one who handed myself to the police. It is in the same spirit that I beseech this honourabe court to grant me bail pending trial. My liberty has been taken away from me and with it so many of my other constitutional freedoms that I used to enjoy. I have suffered beyond measure as a result of my incarceration. In the premises, I aver that my family is deprived of my support and care owing to my continued incarceration,” he says. Sepopa also says society would not suffer any prejudice should he be granted bail.
“If this court considers carefully the fact that this trial will certainly not be completed for at the very least two years, and imagines the anguish of such a long period of incarceration for one whose innocence had not been dislodged, it will come to the inescapable conclusion that travesty of justice is in progress here and thus court must not afford such travesty any stamp of legal sanction,” he further says.
Sepopa maintains that he is not a flight risk and will abide by any strict bail conditions. The urgent application will be heard tomorrow.