Butterfly wins fight, awaits battle
As DPP withdraws terrorism charge
Twelve months down the line after slapping Wilhelmina Maswabi with three charges including financing terrorism, the state on Tuesday withdrew the charge for lack of evidence.
The withdrawal of financing terrorism charge against Maswabi, aka ‘ Butterfly’, leaves her with two charges of possession of unexplained property and false declaration of a passport.
Maswabi will return to court on 11th February 2021 for a status hearing. Appearing Tuesday before Acting Regional Magistrate, Goodwill Moakofhi, the Directorate of Public Prosecution ( DPP) withdrew the financing terrorism charge against Maswabi for lack of evidence.
They said the charge will be reinstated whether in its current form or different in future once enough evidence has been gathered. The state also indicated its readiness to proceed with charges of unexplained possession of properties or living beyond the means against Maswabi. In the other charge she was allegedly found in possession of a passport that was acquired through giving a false declaration. The parties will be going to court for status hearing on 11 February 2021 to decide on how to progress with those two charges
During their appearance in August, the prosecution team of Priscilla Israel and Sylvester Makale gave court an update of investigations stating that they are making progress but did not reveal the exact nature of the progress.
They also said they want to change or add more accused persons, but did not mention who those accused persons are. This week Tuesday, they did not bring any new charges let alone add more accused persons, as they had intimated.
The DPP decision to withdraw Maswabi’s financing terrorism charge has set tongues wagging.
Defence attorney Uyapo Ndadi adopted a wait and see approach as he listened to DPP withdrawing the charge on Tuesday and did not even make the oral application he had promised in August.