The Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) is reported to be engaged in secret negotiations to settle a case in which two soldiers, two police officers and two civilians, who were allegedly falsely detained and tortured by its members on the weekend of 17 October, 2008 are suing it for P15m.
Reliable sources close to the case, but who refused to be named, said that DIS has already approached the victims about the offer and negotiations are underway.
Last year, the Public Relations Officer of the Directorate of Public Prosecution, Abigail Hlabano, when asked when the case against the alleged torturers would be prosecuted said that they were still studying the matter and that appropriate action would be taken after that.
She answered similarly when asked about a case in which an operative of DIS is alleged to have shot and killed another operative when they were trying to arrest a Blessing Mukweni, a Zimbabwean citizen, for an undisclosed crime.
The alleged torture victims are Inspector Seiteketso Mpusetsang, Constable Marumo Ookeditse, Privates Tshepho Moile and Gideon Otukele, whilst Karabo Motswiri and Tebogo Majama are civilians.
Efforts to get a comment from the Director of DIS, Isaac Kgosi, were futile as his mobile went unanswered.
Particulars of the claim that the alleged torture victims have laid against the DIS are that Tebogo Majama was arrested on the night of 16 October, 2008 after he had spent the better part of that day downing drinks, courtesy of one “Eddie”, a confessed support staff of the DIS.
The drinking spree came to an untimely and incredible end when certain operatives of DIS approached him and accused him of being in the illegal business of selling ammunition.
In their bid to prove their point, the operative fished from inside Majama’s motor vehicle a white plastic bag containing some gold metal, which they described to him as ammunition.
After that, he was placed in cells at Gaborone West Police Station where he was detained till 18 October, 2008.
What then transpired was that there was a gun that had gone missing from the Gaborone West Police armoury.
The gun was allegedly taken away from the armoury by Mouse sang, a police officer, with the assistance of another police officer, Ookeditse.
The officers, it was alleged, then used the gun to commit robberies in Molepolole, Ramotswa, and Moshupa. The gun was said to be still missing at the time of investigations and that the torture was aimed at eliciting information as to its whereabouts and on various crimes where it was used.
But that one assistant superintendent, Phadi, the custodian of the armoury keys had said that there was no gun missing in the armoury, adding that he was never asked about this before the alleged torture and that he had told the DIS members who were torturing victims that there was no missing gun in the armoury but that the information fell on deaf ears as the torture had continued even after that.
Then, later on, guns were counted and all guns were accounted for and none was missing.
The victims, it is alleged in the law suit, were tortured using several different methods.
