Former President Ian Khama asks the Botswana Supreme Court to annul the arrest warrant against him

6 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Former Botswana President Ian Khama has filed a petition with the African country’s Supreme Court seeking to overturn the arrest warrant issued against him last week for alleged illegal possession of weapons, among other charges.

Khama has affirmed that the arrest warrant “has been issued based on inadequate facts” and has added that his detention “would be unreasonable, excessive and illegal”, while warning that it “would violate his constitutional rights”, including the right to freedom and dignity.

“The decision to charge me is an abuse of judicial processes and harassment, given that the firearms (…) are legally registered in my name and have a license from the competent authorities,” he said, as reported by the newspaper ‘The Monitor’.

In this sense, it has stressed that “there are not enough facts to suggest that the person against whom the arrest warrant was issued has committed the crimes with which they are charged”, which has demanded that it be “suspended or rejected”.

The former president has argued that, otherwise, “he will suffer irreparable damage that cannot be considered in any way.” “If I am detained, even for a few hours, and then it turns out that the decision is reviewed and rejected, I will not be able to recover damages to my constitutional damages to dignity, reputation and personal liberty.”

The arrest warrant was issued last week by a Botswana court, although the former president has been in self-imposed exile in South Africa since 2021. Also charged in the case are former intelligence chief Isaac Kgosi, the former commissioner of Police Keabetswe Makgophe and the Permanent Undersecretary of Police Bruno Paledi.

The charges for illegal possession of weapons carry a penalty of up to ten years in prison in the African country. Khama, son of the first president of Botswana after its independence, Seretse Khama, moved to South Africa in November 2021, although he assured that he was not doing so fleeing from justice.

The former president held the position between 2008 and 2018 and, although he supported his vice president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, in the elections held that year, he has subsequently distanced himself from him, accusing him of authoritarianism. Masisi was vice president between 2014 and 2018.