Defence challenges confesion in muder case

Dumezweni Mthimkulu said in final submissions yesterday that evidence before court clearly support his case. He told Justice Michael Leburu of the Lobatse High Court that in their own admissions, state witnesses admitted to having kept his client Daniel Sime in isolation in order to get him to confess to murder. He said his client was denied food when in police custody, while his co-accused were remanded in prison.

He said the judicial officer who recorded the confession statement did not follow procedure because he failed to ensure that police escorting the accused were not in the vicinity of the interview room.  However, the state countered Mthimkulu's submissions urging that if ever Sime was forced into confessing, he had ample opportunity to reveal that he was forced into doing so.