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Botswana: Former SA Officer Gets 15 Years
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The Voice (Francistown)
6 May 2008
Posted to the web 6 May 2008
Gaborone
A former South African Police officer Vicey Malope has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for armed robbery.
The sentence was back-dated to June 23, 2004, when he was arrested and detained in South Africa pending his extradition to Botswana to face trial.
Malope and three others, who were still at large, were accused of robbing Coin Botswana more than P1 million at gunpoint in 2003. He had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Passing sentence after convicting Malope, Gaborone's Chief Magistrate Lot Moroka said the offence committed was serious.
In mitigation, Malope had asked the court to be lenient when passing sentence because he had been in prison for the past three years. He also said he had children back home to look after.
Malope said if a prison sentence was imposed, the court should consider back-dating the sentence to the time when he was arrested and detained while in South Africa awaiting extradition.
Even though Magistrate Moroka backdated the sentence, he said this was just a practice by many courts but not the rule of law as there was no provision in the law to do that.
"It is a practice but not certainly a law to backdate," he said. "A court should not do so but adverts its mind to it."
Chief Magistrate Moroka said in most cases, the courts backdate the sentence because they din't want to see the accused suffering undue punishment, as sometimes cases take long to be completed.
He said society demanded that perpetrators of armed robberies should be punished as the offence affect the economy of any country.
The magistrate said the prosecution had proved its case beyond any reasonable doubt that the accused was one of the four assailants who participated in the armed robbery.
His judgement relied on the identification parade, which he supported its value and the manner in which it was conducted.
In his defence, Malope had said the identification parade was not properly conducted as the accused persons might have seen him or been given his description prior to the parade.
"There is no doubt that the witnesses identified the right man," he said. "The robbers did not conceal their faces at the time of the robbery and I am confident that the witnesses were right and correct that Malope took part in the robbery."
He also said the Botswana police uniform which Malope disguised himself in was also found together with Coin Botswana moneyboxes in a bush were near Thamaga.
Coin Botswana employees testified that one of the assailants was wearing a Botswana police uniform while others had disguised as detectives.
The magistrate also rejected the evidence of the accused's witness saying the two connived while in prison to create a story, which was a true perjury in court.
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Mr Moroka also rejected the evidence of Aupa Mphumane, who was an accomplice witness saying his evidence was unacceptable as he took part in the robbery.
He therefore ordered the state to charge Mphumane as he was a criminal participant in the matter.
In an interview outside the court, Principal Prosecution Counsel Mrs Priscilla Israel said they would execute the order and bring Mphumane to justice. BOPA
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