Six police officers, who were accused of torturing to death a suspect and then hanged him to conceal what had actually happened, have been charged with murder.
Information passed to Sunday Standard indicates that the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) has decided to press charges against the six police officers who, sometime around August 2009, allegedly tortured and hanged suspect Jordan Italy Setlapoloka, 29, of Mahalapye.
It is understood that the accused officers were served with summons last Thursday and are expected to be arraigned on the 4th of next month.
In a brief interview, Senior Assistant Police Commissioner, Mathews Letsholo, said, “I am not aware if the suspects have already being charged.”
He said that what he was aware of is that the case was handed over to the DPP after police investigations.
However, the accused officers, who are detectives under an operation unit called “Batshware”, (meaning ‘arrest them’), arrested the deceased who was among the wanted suspects on a police list.
The deceased was allegedly brutally tortured during interrogation.
On realizing that the suspect had died, they allegedly took him to Senamakola Lands near Gabane Village and hanged him but was later discovered by passersby who alerted the police.
Arriving on the scene, the police were suspicious of the numerous footprints on the scene and believed that the deceased might have been hanged by unknown people.
Police Commissioner, Thebeyame Tsimako, ordered investigations into the circumstances that led to Setlapoloka’s death.
In a press statement, the police stated that Setlapoloka was wanted by the police for failing to honour all bail conditions imposed on him by the Mahalapye Magistrate Court in an armed robbery case.
