Bomb suspect faces lighter charges
Sharon Mathala | Wednesday May 14, 2014 15:07
In his new case, Zebe was initially charged with obtaining by false pretences. The Extension II Magistrate’s Court yesterday learnt that the charges had been reduced to forgery.
The deal came after Zebe pleaded guilty to the initial charge. Zebe is alleged to have forged a First National Bank of Botswana (FNBB) cheque amounting to P5,000 on September 29, 2012 at Kgale View branch.
Motivating the application for a variation of charges, state prosecutor, Relentse Mosarwana, confirmed that the charges have been reduced to forgery.
“Given the circumstances that the accused has now pleaded guilty, I have been given the go-ahead to charge the accused with forgery. I intend to provide the court with three-documents of evidence,” Mosarwana said.
Mosarwana then asked for two weeks within which to produce the evidence. The prosecutor also did not oppose bail for the accused while a case is finalised against him.
Zebe, who did not deny the charges levelled against him, was granted conditional bail and ordered to appear before court on May 27. Magistrate Joy Brown-Norman ordered the state to provide the court with Zebe’s previous convictions as well as the documented evidence when the case returns for mention.
In his previous mention Zebe, changed his plea to guilty and said he did not want to waste the court’s time. “I want to change my plea; this has been going on for too long and I want to apologise to this court because this has not been leading us anywhere,” he said.