The Director of the Directorate of Intelligence Service (DIS) says there is no one above the law as one of his officers was arrested and charged after soliciting for a bribe from a suspected criminal.
Last week on Tuesday, Bathusi Moarabi, a DIS agent based in Francistown, was arraigned before the Francistown magistrate court charged with a single count of corruption.
According to information passed to Sunday Standard, Moarabi, who was attached to Immigration and Citizenship, was assigned to investigate Thabani Moyo, a Zimbabwean national who was suspected of working in Botswana without a valid work permit.
It is understood that every time when law enforcement arranged to conduct a raid, Moarabi allegedly alerted the suspect about the proposed raid and it was discovered that some immigration officers were also implicated in this exercise and allegedly solicited for bribes.
Sometime in January, Moarabi allegedly asked for a bribe of about P1500 from the suspect.
It is then that the suspect allegedly went to the DCEC and alerted them and a plan to catch Moarabi red handed was hatched.
The charge sheet states that Moarabi on the 28th January 2011 received for himself an amount of P1500 from one Thabani Moyo in order not to investigate and arrest Moyo for working in Botswana without a work permit.
In a brief interview with Sunday Standard the director of DIS Isaac Kgosi said “Yes, I am fully aware of the matter therefore the law takes its course,” Isaac Kgosi, the Director of DIS, told the Sunday Standard.
Kgosi said, as per procedure, Moarabi was being suspended from duty until the matter was completed but his identity card has been taken from him.
Kgosi said since the formation of DIS, Moarabi becomes the first officer to be arrested and charged as well as to be interdicted from duty.
He added that so far there are no other officers that have been interdicted since DIS was born a few years ago.
Moarabi will appear in court again on the 30th of next month when a trial date will be set.
