'Letter might have saved Bosch'

2001-04-12 22:24

Gaborone - Had a letter to the office of Botswana President Festus Mogae been delivered on time, the execution of convicted killer Marietta Bosch might have been stayed, SA Human Rights Commission Chairperson Barney Pityana said on Thursday.

"Botswana government officials told me that at the time of the execution they were not aware of a request by the African Commission under the African Charter for Human and People's Rights that the execution not be carried out until it had considered a petition from Bosch's lawyers," Pityana was quoted in the Botswana Guardian in Gaborone as saying.

However, a senior government official said submissions at that stage would have been irrelevant.

Pityana was in the country to address meetings on human rights which were attended by politicians, government officials, human rights activists, police and prison officers.

The submission to Mogae's office was made by Bosch's lawyers.

Senior Permanent Secretary to Mogae, Louis Selepeng, dismissed the report as media hype, saying the receipt of the plea would have had no effect.

Irrelevant

"It was irrelevant. The Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy meets automatically to consider every death sentence after court appeals have failed. It does not hear argument, lawyers have no locus standi before it. We received many letters requesting clemency for Bosch."

Bosch was convicted in December 1999 for the murder of her best friend Maria Wolmarans. Bosch and Wolmarans's husband Tienie married a year after the killing during a period when she was on bail.

She was executed on March 31, two months after her High Court Appeal was refused, and only days after Mogae had refused clemency.

The Court of Appeal in January 2001 upheld her conviction and death sentence, and maintained she was a wicked and despicable woman who had carefully planned to kill Wolmarans so she could marry Tienie.

Bosch was denied access to her husband and her children before the execution.

They had tried to see her on the Friday after the death warrant had been served, but were refused access. Neither they, or her lawyers were told the execution had been scheduled.

The family learnt of her death on a news bulletin whilst driving to the prison on the Monday after she had been hanged.

Pityana told the Guardian that the African Charter for Human and People's Rights did not require countries to abolish the death penalty but to have a moratorium on it which eventually led to abolition. - Sapa

- SAPA