Sebina sex firestorm case politically motivated- Nsala
Correspondent | Friday June 24, 2016 16:42
Moalosi’s attorney Owen Nsala said the seizure of Moalosi’s laptop is politically motivated in order for him to appear as a criminal before the eyes of the public, should he express interest to stand as the BCP Shashe West parliamentary candidate in future.
Nsala said this at the Francistown High Court where Moalosi has approached the court on urgency to declare the seizure of his laptop by Detective Superintendent Sergeant Marapo of Botswana police service as unlawful.
Nsala told Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo in the ongoing case that the laptop should be returned to Moalosi without delay.
Moalosi said he needed the laptop urgently because he was suffering academically since he is using it for his masters of science degree programme in computer science at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST).
The police seized Moalosi’s laptop because they allege that the purported Facebook conversation between the assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Fidelis Molao, and councillor Kemmonye Amon of Sebina originated from the laptop.
Molao has since denied the Facebook conversation with Amon saying that his Facebook account was hacked. The Attorney General (AG) and Marapo are listed as the first and second respondents respectively in the matter.
“Reasonable suspicion would have arisen necessitating that the second respondent’s seizure and detention of the laptop with regards to Fidelis Molao’s complaint is unlawful. It boggles the mind why Marapo took the laptop because in his answering affidavit, he admitted that in the course of his investigations, he seized Molao, Amon, Titose Thipe and the applicant’s mobile phones,” said Nsala.
Nsala also told the court that no explanation was offered as to why any other device other than a mobile phone could have been used to create the purported Facebook conversation between Molao and Amon.
He added: “We are wondering why Molao, Amon and Thipe’s laptops were not seized by the police. I don’t want to believe that they don’t own laptops. This is clear evidence that the police were looking for cellphones and nothing else. The police went at length to try and negate that factual averment by trying to allege that the laptop was taken to investigate Molao’s complaint.”
Of interest is annexure AG2 which is a police statement that was given by Thipe. The probable value of the statement is to suggest that Thipe’s complaint regarding his Facebook issue was a complaint not registered before Marapo, but before Francistown police, Nsala said. It is of interest, Nsala said, that a similar annexure of criminal registration number of 7875/2016 appears on the annexure that was used to investigate Molao’s complaint at Broadhurst police.
“That is too good to be true and we submit that Marapo is not a good candidate to be treated as a credible witness. Marapo told the court that he knew that the applicant was a student at BIUST but he later changed and said he does not know if he was a student or not…” said Nsala.
Nsala also asked the court to allow him to tender the audio recording to show that Molao told GABZ FM that he suspected that his political opponent allegedly hacked his Facebook account.
However, Nyamadzabo agreed with the defendants’ attorney Wada Nfila that the audio recording that Molao is said to have given to GABZ FM cannot be used as evidence because he did not produce it formally before court.
Nsala also poured scorn on Nonofo Dichabe-a forensic expert who made a forensic audit into Moalosi’s laptop before making his findings.
“…Dichabe has failed to bring the court to his confidence that he is a qualified expert. He fails to show that he is qualified and certified to use and operate the access data forensic tool last version 5 that he said he used to find damning evidence in my client’s laptop… Dichabe avers that the purported conversation between Molao and Amon was created and accessed from the laptop. Evidently, the communication before court clearly demonstrates that they were sent from mobile phones…
We urge the court to treat Dichabe with caution because he failed to demonstrate how a mobile phone conversation miraculously turned into a laptop conversation,” said Nsala.
Nsala had earlier told the court that the police did not follow the right procedures when they seized and detained Moalosi’s laptop.
“…We submit in the end that we have clearly demonstrated that the police have become a law unto themselves and we pray with the court to bring them to order before many innocent citizens suffer from their machinations,” Nsala said.
At the time of going to print, Nfila was yet to respond to what Nsala had told the court. The case continues.