Kalafatis killers to appeal

ISAIAH MOREWAGAE
Staff Writer | Friday August 12, 2011 00:00

 

Sources say the convicts have also filed papers at the High Court with the intention to apply for bail pending appeal. However, the appeal is yet to be allocated a judge as it was registered only yesterday.

Two months ago, Justice David Newman of the Lobatse High Court sentenced Sechele, Matako and Maifala to 11 years in prison. Also to appeal is Dzikamani Mothobi, a Military Intelligence (MI) officer who Newman handed a four-year sentence, three of which were conditionally suspended after he was found guily of being an accessory to the murder. The court found that he had actively participated in the measures taken to cover up the transgressions of his colleagues, following the shooting of Kalafatis.

Sechele, Matako and Maifala have been convicted of murder, but escaped the hangman's noose by a whisker after Newman found that there were extenuating circumstances that reduced their moral blameworthiness when committing the crime.