BOTSWANA EXECUTES MARIETTA BOSCH

The Police Commissioner of the Botswana President’s Office, Joseph Orebotse, confirmed that Marietta Bosch, was hanged at Botswana’s maximum security prison in Gabarone, but gave no further details.Bosch, 50, was sentenced to death in February 2000 for the June 1996 murder of Maria Wolmarans, her best friend and the wife of the man she had since married, Tienie Wolmarans. The Botswana Appeal Court, made up of a panel of judges from Commonwealth countries refused her appeal in January, saying there was a massive body of evidence that she had committed the crime. Botswana President Festus Mogae, the only person who could commute her death sentence to life imprisonment, refused clemency. "I will not give her clemency," he said during a visit to London on March 31, the same day when the hanging took place.News of her execution was initially denied by the South African Foreign Affairs Department.“The lady has not been executed,” spokesperson Basetane Thokoane said.However, later on Monday, she said that the Department was “expecting information from our mission in Botswana.”The Botswana’s Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ernest Mpofu also confirmed the execution. Mpofu said the Botswana government had followed the protocol of law and no advantage had been taken of the fact that President Festus Mogae was out of the country. He added that according to Botswana law the family would have been notified prior to the hanging.South African President Thabo Mbeki, who had been asked to intervene on Bosch’s behalf by the SA Human Rights Commission, was expected to issue a statement later on Monday.Bosch is the third woman to be executed in Botswana. There have been 33 hangings since independence from Britain in 1966. Bosch’s execution is the first in three years. Botswana retains the death penalty for murder, treason, an attempt on the life on the head of state, and for the military offences of mutiny and desertion in the face of the enemy.