Botswana
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · Capital crimes are: murder, treason, an attempt on...
- News items in the archive
- 133
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Botswana is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 133 news items on Botswana, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- MARCH 31, 2001BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
"Marietta Bosch was hanged" said Herman Kau, Botswana's...
"Marietta Bosch was hanged" said Herman Kau, Botswana's commissioner for prisons
- FEBRUARY 1, 2001BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
The Namibian National Society for Human Rights joined...
The Namibian National Society for Human Rights joined the call to Botswana President Festus Mogae to commute the death penalty imposed on Mariette Bosch to life imprisonment
- JANUARY 1, 2001BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
Capital crimes are: murder, treason, an attempt on...
Capital crimes are: murder, treason, an attempt on the life of the head of state, and the military offenses of mutiny and desertion
- APRIL 26, 2000BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
Botswana voted against the resolution on the death...
Botswana voted against the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 26 (no
- MARCH 13, 2000BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
In a landmark case, a magistrate in Botswana reserved...
In a landmark case, a magistrate in Botswana reserved passing a sentence and ordered a man found guilty of raping a teenage girl to undergo an HIV/AIDS test
- FEBRUARY 11, 2000BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
Mariette Sonjaleen Bosch was sentenced to death by...
Mariette Sonjaleen Bosch was sentenced to death by the Botswana High Court at Lobatse, for killing Maria Magdalene Wolmarans the wife of Marthinus Johannes 'Tienie' Wolmarans, the man she later married, on June 26, 1996
- JANUARY 1, 2000BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
Capital crimes are: murder, treason, an attempt on...
Capital crimes are: murder, treason, an attempt on the life of the head of state, and the military offenses of mutiny and desertion
- OCTOBER 5, 1999BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
On October 5, Lobatse High Court Judge, Dudley Reynolds,...
On October 5, Lobatse High Court Judge, Dudley Reynolds, upheld Ditshwanelo's application to temporarily suspend the execution of the two convicts after listening for two days to arguments on the possibility of mistrial by both the defense attorneys and t
- AUGUST 2, 1999BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
On August 2, Ditshwanelo, the Botswana center for human...
On August 2, Ditshwanelo, the Botswana center for human rights in Gabarone, challenged the constitutionality of the death penalty handed down to the two condemned men
- JANUARY 15, 1999BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
On January 15, Gwara Brown Motswetla, 28, and Tlhabologang...
On January 15, Gwara Brown Motswetla, 28, and Tlhabologang Phetolo Maauwe, 30, two men condemned to death in 1995, won an eleventh hour stay of execution because Justice Reynolds in an interim ruling said that the 4-year delay in carrying out the sentence
- JANUARY 1, 1999BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
Capital crimes are: murder, treason, an attempt on...
Capital crimes are: murder, treason, an attempt on the life of the head of state, and the military offenses of mutiny and desertion
- JANUARY 1, 1999BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
Botswana voted against the resolution on the death...
Botswana voted against the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 28 (1999/61)
- JANUARY 1, 1999BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
Feelings over the issue of capital punishment are mixed...
Feelings over the issue of capital punishment are mixed in Botswana