03/09/2026
PRESS RELEASE
Legal process resulting in the acquittal of Ms Lesedi Molapisi
DITSHWANELO – The Botswana Centre for Human Rights has been approached by various media houses with the request to further explain the details of the legal process through which Ms Lesedi Molapisi was acquitted on 28 July 2026.
On January 23, 2022, Ms Lesedi Molapisi boarded a Qatar Airways flight from South Africa to Dhaka, Bangladesh for the purpose of buying garments for retailing them in Botswana. She had connected with a Managing Director of a garment factory, who sent her an invitation letter required to support her visa application. Upon landing in Dhaka in the early evening of 24 January 2022, Customs officials searched her hand luggage and her person after which she was made to wait in another room while her check-in luggage was searched in her absence. According to the charge sheet filed against her, the Customs officers discovered 3.145 kilograms of he**in concealed inside eight polybags in the said luggage. Ms Molapisi was not shown the alleged he**in find by the Customs officials. She was subsequently arrested and immediately incarcerated.
She was kept in the Kashimpur Women’s Jail while investigations against her continued. A charge sheet against her was submitted to the court on 8 August 2022 – seven months after her arrest. Charges were formally framed against her almost one year later, on 20 July 2023, under sections 25 C and 25 D of the Special Powers Act 1974 and section 36 (1) 8 (Ga)/41 of the Narcotics Control Act 2018 . However, the Sessions Court dropped the charges against her which were under the Special Powers Act 1974, stating that there were no grounds.
On 27 May 2024, the 8th Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Dhaka, sentenced Lesedi Molapisi to death along with an order to pay a fine of Taka 20,000 (approximately 150 USD).
In October 2025, Dr Alice Mogwe, in her capacity as President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), visited Bangladesh and was hosted by the local member of FIDH. Dr. Mogwe held talks with the-then Chief Advisor / Prime Minister, Advisors / Ministers and officials of the interim government on a broad range of human rights issues. She also had the opportunity to visit Ms Molapisi in prison accompanied by Advocate Ahsanuzzaman, representing the local FIDH member organisation, who subsequently became engaged in the monitoring of Ms Molapisi’s court case and her well-being in prison.
On 16 July 2026, the hearing of the appeal against the death sentence commenced in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, with Senior Advocates Md. Ruhul Amin Bhuiyan and Adilur Rahman Khan, and Advocate Mohammad Ahsanuzzaman representing Lesedi Molapisi. The hearing of the appeal ended on 20 July 2026. On 28 July 2026 the Bench of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice Md. Kamrul Hossain Molla and Justice Foisal Hasan Arif, passed an order of acquittal for Lesedi Molapisi, declaring her not guilty of the charges against her.
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh, High Court Division. Dhaka (Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction), passed judgement on 28.07.2026 which states as follows:
“ … this Court is led to come in a decision that the prosecution miserably failed to prove the charge as brought against the condemned-accused Lesedi Molapisi … In the result, the Death Reference No. 90 of 2024 is rejected”.
“The judgement and order of conviction and sentence dated 27.05.2024 …. is hereby set aside. “The Criminal Appeal No. 4788 of 2024 and Jail Appeal No. 186 of 2024 are hereby allowed”.
“The condemned prisoner Lesedi Molapisi … is not found guilty … and is acquitted accordingly”.
The relevant pages from the above quoted judgement as delivered by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh are published on the DITSHWANELO page.
DITSHWANELO trusts that the above information effectively addresses the need for clarification concerning the legal process which led to the acquittal of Ms Lesedi Molapisi.
3 September 2026
Gaborone
