Inquest into death of three Namibians, and a Zambian begins

The quartet were killed by BDF soldiers at night

The matter in which three Namibians and one Zambian were allegedly shot by Botswana Defence Force ( BDF) soldiers around Sedudu Island was registered with Kasane Magistrate court on Wednesday.

The quartet was shot at night by members of BDF on 5th November 2020 around the Sedudu island area. This followed a directive from the Director of Public Prosecution Stephen Tiroyakgosi who ordered that an inquest be held and the case be registered after assessing the evidence in the inquest docket.

The proceedings were registered before Regional Magistrate North, Taboka Mopipi who has since set a two week hearing period of the inquest starting 16 to 26th of November 2021.

The matter was brought at the Kasane Magistrate court before Mopipi on Wednesday morning purely for registration and preparation purpose.

The state was represented by Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, Kabo Leinaeng who appeared together with another DDPP, Wesson Mantswe and Assistant Director, Thato Dibeela.

After the shooting, both Botswana and Namibian governments committed themselves to conduct investigations and the Inquest docket was produced by a joint investigation between the Botswana police and their Namibia counterparts.

The state is expected to call about 22 witnesses including the pathologists who performed postmortem examination on the bodies of the four deceased.

Once evidence has been given the regional magistrate shall pronounce her verdict as to whether any person can be held criminally liable or not- this is in accordance with the Inquest Act Chapter 07; 01 of the laws of Botswana

Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, Leinaeng confirmed this development.