Police stop and search put officers in trouble

The officers, inspector Kenneth Mange and constable Baakile Ramorethwa represented by the Attorney General, cited as the first respondent has been ordered to pay damages in the amount of P35000 to Martin Dingake for unlawful arrest and detention during a stop and search operation in 2019. On Friday Justice Godfrey Radijeng of the Gaborone High Court granted the judgment in favour of the lawyer after he took the police officers to court for arresting him while jogging or running at night following his refusal to be searched without a warrant.

The judge explained that he found the arrest unlawful after the victim led evidence that he was detained for about two hours while the police merely said that they took him to the police station for about 20 minutes. “I take the view that he was arrested on the side of the road and not at the station and that it is more probable that the period of time he was under the control of the police is as he has asserted.