Courtroom audience in a case in which Gaborone tycoon Robert Masitara was facing rape charges could not restrain themselves and ululated in the Village Magistrate Court on Friday when Extension Two Principal Magistrate, Barnabas Nyamazabo, acquitted and discharged Masitara.
The visibly happy audience clapped welcoming the verdict. Discharging and acquitting Masitara, the Magistrate said that there were a lot of inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case on different fronts.
Besides that, he said that the State had failed to prove that indeed intercourse had taken place in that all the forensic experts who gave evidence in the case failed to detect any semen on the clothes on which they had conducted their tests.
Nyamazabo further said that the accused person had come out as a more reliable witness as compared to the complainant.
The prosecution witnesses, he said, did not help the state case as there were a lot of inconsistencies in their statements.
On whether intercourse did take place, Nyamazabo said there was also no evidence on that because examinations by a doctor proved that there was no semen inside the complainant as could have been expected in such a case.
Nyamazabo also said that it was very surprising that, after the alleged rape, the complainant had not gone to the reception to report the incident but chose to go home to Taung location driven by the accused.
He also said that she had passed by the Central Police Station where she could have reported the matter. The two, he said, even had discussions on the way to Taung.
After the verdict was read, Masitara, who was visibly happy, first hugged his wife who he later on described as having supported him during the long trial, adding that he was sure that not many wives would have done such a thing.
”I honestly thank her for having stood by me,” he said. He thanked his lawyer, Doreen Khama, who he said was a brilliant lawyer and that he does not think any other lawyer in the country would have done what she did.
On other issues, he said that his foundation, which had been adversely affected by the case, will be back in full swing next week.
The foundation, he said, had not been functioning in the past years because the donors he worked with had stated that they wanted the case to be concluded first. He revealed that he, nevertheless, had been able to help some people during the trial. Lastly, the tycoon took a swipe at the police and accused them of having plotted against him.
Masitara said he has information that one senior police officer had instructed junior officers to nail him.
