Gaborone Extension Two Magistrate, Enoch Mazonde, has ruled that a police officer, who wrote the statement in the on-going homosexuality bribery case, be called to give evidence and be cross examined.
Two police officers, Gilbert Matsiara and Kabelo Kentse from Gaborone Central Police Station, are facing charges of allegedly receiving a bribe from Food Mart General manager Charl Howard, so as not to open a case file after he allegedly made homosexual advances to a male complainant.
Mazonde’s call came after he concurred with the defence lawyer that the statement written by the police officer could not be relied upon because the handwritten version admitted by the lawyer differed from the typed one.
Mazonde also said that there was ambiguity and admitting the evidence made by the police officer was not only irregular but also fatal to the defence case.
The magistrate said that he had not found any precedent in the country’s legal books.
Before he passed the ruling, Mazonde said that the statements should reflect each other. He added that even the prosecutor in this matter had admitted that the typed version had missed a whole page of written statement and that this simply meant that the statement was not a true reflection of the hand written version.
Mazonde conceded that the defence lawyer in this matter also erred because he had not fully read both statements to make sure they contained similar information before making admissions.
The prosecutor, he said, was also at fault because he had not fully read the statements before handing them to the lawyer which he did but at different times.
Howard has not been charged because Central Police Station Commander, Takongwa Mazwiduma, says there was no case against him.
