/ 9 December 2003

Mariette Bosch’s execution was ‘fair’

The execution of convicted murderer Mariette Bosch, a South African citizen, in Botswana in March 2001 did not contravene the policies of the African Commission on Human Rights, the office of the president of Botswana said on Monday.

It said the commission, at its 34th Ordinary Session meeting in Gambia, ruled that Bosch’s right to life had not been violated by the imposition of the death penalty.

The case had been raised by UK-based NGO Interights and other unnamed parties.

The office said there was adequate evidence to convict Bosch and that Botswana’s clemency procedure was fair.

The commission had found that the murder of Maria Wolmarans, wife of a man Bosch eventually married, had been a gruesome offence, said the office. It added that there had been no basis for faulting the findings of both the trial and appeal courts in sentencing her to death.

”The exercise of clemency by a Head of State is discretionary, there is no entitlement (by an appellant) to the benefit of all the facilities which are allowed to a litigant in a judicial trial”.

It said there was no mention of criticism raised at the time that Bosch’s execution had been unreasonably shrouded in secrecy.

”She was executed without notice to her family. Her husband and children learnt of the hanging through a radio news bulletin as they were driving to the Gaborone Central Prison to try and visit her”. – Sapa