The Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) is reported to be in the process of filing an ex parte application for a warrant of arrest against former President Lt Gen Ian Khama.
Khama’s lawyer Victor Ramalepa of Ramalepa Attorneys confirmed Saturday that they were aware that the state is processing an application for Khama’s arrest.
“We have not been officially informed. We picked the information from our intelligence. We have been trying to confirm with the Judges clerk, but she is very cagey with information. We cannot even access records of his case because the file has allegedly been locked up in the registrar’s office, which is not the case with other files.”
DIS lawyers allegedly filed the application on Friday before Justice Reiner Busang, but were asked to bring more information which they were expected to present yesterday (Saturday).
The application will be processed ex parte or behind closed doors today (Sunday), in order to protect classified national security information, will be supported by secret information about the potential security threat posed by the former president.
Khama’s lawyer however told the Sunday Standard that “we will be in court tomorrow (Sunday) for the case.”
Should the application against Khama be granted, it is understood Botswana would then place a red notice for Khama with South Africa’s Interpol.
Red Notices are issued for fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence. A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. Khama is currently holed up in South Africa.
The Sunday Standard was unable to raise information on charges being preferred against the former president. The application however comes days after the DIS, acting on a tip-off, descended on the official residence of the former president and discovered a cache of seven unspecified “arms of war” in an outhouse.
Investigating officers last Friday night sealed off the armoury at Khama’s official residence. This was after Khama’s security officers reported that seven guns, believed to be unregistered had been smuggled into their armory from Khama’s main residence.
As source close to the incident told the Sunday Standard that a team of security officers called Khama’s neighbors, security officers and domestic staff to witness as they sealed off the armory since they could not raid it at night.
At press time, the information we had was that the guns were unlicensed and their origins untraceable.
Communicating with Sunday Standard through an aide, Khama said that he had already learnt through a source that “they have been planting things there to implicate me; that’s why they went at night.”
In terms of the Presidents Pension and Retirement Benefits Act, which was fattened during Khama’s own administration, presidents get a retirement house and staff. The latter includes a private secretary, bodyguards and household workers in the form of chefs, drivers, cleaners and gardeners. Our information is that the armoury where the cache was found was opened in the presence of some household staff members. On the other hand, Khama says that there was no one in the house at the time of the DIS raid.
“It was night,” said Khama who is currently in South Africa and obviously repeating what he had been told by those who were at what press time, was officially a crime scene. “I was told by my private security. No one from my DIS security has told me even up to now.” The “now” was at 1008 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Khama’s security is configured in an odd if risky manner: he has official bodyguards from DIS and private bodyguards that he pays from his own pocket. This unusual arrangement was occasioned by belief, on his part, that some of his DIS bodyguards have been sent by the powers-that-be to spy on him. He has also complained that his security has been degraded by degrees as a ploy to expose him to danger.
To the question of whether he knew whether DIS officers confiscated anything from the house, Khama responded: “I don’t know what was taken or planted.”
Sunday Standard learns from other sources that the cache may be of guns that Khama acquired in his personal capacity when he was still president but upon retirement, gave to his bodyguards to inventorise as DIS property. That would basically have been a donation if he had paid for the guns with his own money. Through that same source, we learn that the outhouse is used by DIS bodyguards.
