A Somalian national last week Friday pleaded with the North Regional Magistrate, Lorraine Makati Lesang, in Francistown to protect him from fellow Somalis who want to kill him, accusing him of rape.
Adam Abdi Mahomed, a resident of Dukwi Refugee camp, implored the court to speed up his case as the case has been pending for a long time without any progress.
He told court that the rape case has been haunting his life since 2006 and he has been living a miserable life yet he knows he is innocent.
Mahomed brought to the court’s attention that even in Dukwi Camp where his family resides, his life has been endangered by fellow Somalis who always vandalise his property and utter death threats.
“The reason why I now reside in Letlhakane is because my life is in danger at the Dukwi Refugee Camp and the Dukwi Police are doing nothing about it,” he told court.
Mahomed said that he tried to request for protection from the Dukwi Police but alleges that they remained mum on the issue.
He indicated that his Somali compatriots and the victim’s family merely hate him because he is a Christian, adding that they decided to frame him with a rape charge to blemish his name and see him rot in jail.
Mahomed is facing two counts, a charge of arson and of rape.
Magistrate Lesang pointed out that she will make an order to the Station Commander at Dukwi to protect him at the Refugee Camp.
Lesang assured the accused that the next mention on the 10th of May would be the last.
According to the prosecution, Mahomed is alleged to have raped the daughter of one Bashir, also a Somali immigrant at the refugee camp, and burnt his house.
However, in an interview with Sunday Standard, Mahomed stated that all the accusations were false and that they were being peddled by his countrymen because they hate him because he chose to convert to Christianity.
“Before I came to Botswana, I was a Christian in Somalia and I was nearly killed by a mob of people for defying the religion of Islam in Somalia,” he said.
He mentioned that the reason why he chose to continue with Christianity in Botswana is because it is a free country where basic human rights are observed, such as the right to choose a religion one pleases.
Mahomed went on to reveal to Sunday Standard that his countrymen have been trying to kill him since his conversion to Christianity and always treat him like an outcast at the camp.
He alleged that the victim’s family is always conniving with his lawyers in the matter and bribes them with money in order to manipulate his charges to favour them and the state.
Mahomed added that recently he went to visit his family in Dukwi to give them money for food and violence erupted with a gang of Somalis who demanded that he open his door, claiming that they wanted to talk to him.
“The mob threw stones at my house, demanding that I open the door but when I peeped through a crack on the door, I realized that their faces were half covered with cloths and that they were carrying pangas,” Mahomed told The Sunday Standard.
