Corpun file 17279

Mmegi, Gaborone, 23 January 2006

Prison Escapee Receives Four Strokes

By Joel Konopo
Staff Writer

A man was flogged at Urban Customary Court on Friday for escaping from jail. Lesedi Lesilwe received four strokes of the cane on bare buttocks after he was convicted of fleeing from Village Prison wardens. He made good his escape last November when he went to work outside prison. Lesilwe and two other inmates took advantage when their guard, Richard Kgampi and fellow wardens went to attend a meeting in a near-by office.

The wardens had asked the prisoners to stay in a strategic place where they would be easily seen. Kgampi became suspicious when he could not see Lesilwe who is serving a one-year sentence for burglary and theft. He went to check and found the prisoner gone. But he was re-arrested two months later in Gaborone.

Before he was flogged, Lesilwe pleaded with Urban Customary Court president Isack Monametsi. “I am already serving a year long sentence. I plead not to have an extended sentence because I want to go to school at the end of my term,” said the remorseful Lesilwe.

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