Lawyers representing Botswana death row prisoner Lehlohonolo...

Lawyers representing Botswana death row prisoner Lehlohonolo Kobedi are in the process of preparing a petition for clemency to be submitted to the Office of the President sometime in May.
Kobedi, who is represented by Mack Bahuma Attorneys, has exhausted all channels of proving his innocence through the courts after the Court of Appeal upheld death sentence previously passed on him for murdering Sergeant Kebotswetse Goepamang in 1993.
The Lobatse High Court on March 19 stated that Kobedi should hang for Goepamang's murder.
His first conviction and death sentence was imposed by the Francistown High Court in 1998. The Court of Appeal threw out his appeal against both conviction and sentence in 1999.
The Court of Appeal's decision saw him filing an application for a retrial in late 1999 with the Lobatse High Court on the grounds that his trial was unfair as he had not been provided with an interpreter. The application was dismissed. Kobedi is a foreign national, but there is doubt on whether he is a citizen of South Africa or Lesotho.
The Director of Ditshwanaelo - Centre for Human Rights - Alice Mogwe said her office was totally against the high court's decision to impose the death penalty on Kobedi. Mogwe said the decision was unfair and unjust as nobody had the right to kill.
She said Ditshwanelo had been in contact with Kobedi's lawyers regarding the matter as a way of finding possible means of reversing the situation.
Mogwe further explained that her organisation represented the rights of people given unfair treatment.