DIS appeal against ex-DCEC boss this month
An appeal case by the Attorney General against former Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) boss Tymon Katlholo is scheduled to be heard during the January Court of Appeal (CoA) session which starts today (Friday).
High Court Judge, Reuben Lekorwe had granted the Attorney General leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal in an application against the then suspended Katlholo. Katlholo was finally shown the door last year following a power tussle with his counterpart at the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) Peter Magosi over some dockets.
In this case the Attorney General (AG) is representing the Ministry of Justice and the DIS, while Monthe Marumo and company represent Katlholo.
The Attorney General brought the application against Katlholo, appealed to the Court of Appeal against the judgment delivered by the court on the 3rd of June 2022. The appeal case is scheduled to be heard on the 23rd of January 2024.
According to court papers, the judgment, not only was Katlholo a public officer, adjudged to have legal standing to litigate on behalf of the DCEC in the applicant’s stead but also, he and the DCEC were granted an interdict against the DIS and an anton piller order, as well, granted in their favour.
The relief was granted on the backdrop of a fierce contest from the applicant that the respondent had no legal standing to bring the application for an interdict on behalf of the DCEC or on his own behalf either in his official or personal capacity.
The applicant had also put forward a spirited challenge that there was neither a cause for an anton piller order nor for an interdict, even an interim one.
In his judgment in June 2022, Lekorwe ruled in favour of Katlholo in the matter in which Katlholo dragged the DIS to court for interfering with some classified files.
Katlholo’s office was sealed on May 3rd by DIS agents in an attempt to seize some files which were said to be implicating some of the DIS officials. This prompted Katlholo, who by then was in Rwanda attending a meeting to immediately seek legal redress to have access to his office and files on his return.
The ruling further restrained the DIS from barricading the offices of the DCEC, sealing of the offices of the DCEC DG and that of the staff officer of the DCEC without warrant; demanding and accessing investigation files and or any files held by the DCEC which fall outside the mandate of the DIS as set out in the Act establishing it more specifically dockets relating to corruption and or money laundering investigations.
The order also stopped the DIS from interfering with the documents and or the records and dockets relative in extent to those specifically listed and requested by the DIS and all files, dockets and documents relating to investigations carried out by the DCEC concerning members of the DIS.
One of the reasons Katlholo dragged the DIS to the court was because he was still investigating some of the officials.
Justice Lekorwe ordered the DIS not to interfere with witnesses in the said records and identity of the whistle-blowers and related matters which are an integral part of the rule of law in the prosecution of any trial.