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TIMES SUNDAY INVESTIGATION LEADS TO ARREST OF TWO OFFICERS

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MBABANE – The arrest over the weekend, of two police officers for allegedly demanding money from suspects in return for their freedom, was partly due to information availed to the police by the Times SUNDAY.


The two officers appeared at the Manzini Magistrates Court on Tuesday, charged with, among other crimes, extorting money from civilians by threatening to arrest them and have their names published in newspapers.
The ‘suspects’ were warned that this would embarrass them and no matter what the outcome of the cases would be, they would already have been publicly shamed.


The accused police officers are alleged to have taken over E100 000 from people who feared arrest and paid to avoid being taken to custody.  The story began in the first week of January 2017, when the Times SUNDAY embarked on investigations to prove that embalming powder was being stolen from funeral parlours by staff members and sold to drug dealers for thousands of Emalangeni.


The investigation led to at least one man, who claimed to be employed by a Manzini funeral parlour.
This man was able to give a kilogramme of pink embalming powder to journalists who posed as middlemen working on behalf of a South African businessman. The man who produced the powder wanted E170 000.


 As a deposit, he could only take E50 000. However, when he was convinced that he would get the full amount (E170 000) a few hours later, he relented and handed over the powder.  This exchange was captured by secret camera and pictures of it were later published in the January 29, 2017 edition of the Times SUNDAY.    

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