EnglishIn 2008, Amos Mbedzi took part in an attempt to bomb a bridge in Eswatini with an explosive device.[1] Mbedzi and two of his comrades were under the bridge preparing the device when it exploded prematurely, severely wounding Mbedzi and killing his two comrades, without damaging the bridge.[2] A passing car brought Mbedzi to a hospital, where he was arrested one hour later. Mbedzi was charged with sedition for the bombing attempt and with murder for the deaths of his comrades.
In a 2012 trial, Mbedzi was convicted of sedition and murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He died in prison in 2022.[3]
Techniques used
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Forensics | ||
| DNA | Mbedzi's DNA was found on a cushion and a sun visor of the car used to transport the explosive device to the bombing site.[2] | |
| Mass surveillance | ||
| Civilian snitches | When the explosive device exploded prematurely and severely wounded Mbedzi, a civilian was traveling by car on a nearby road.[2] The civilian stopped near the bombing site, saw another car stop, and saw Mbedzi shout “Hospital! Hospital!” and get into the other car. The civilian stayed at the site and informed the first cops who arrived that a man wounded in the explosion had gotten into a car towards a hospital. This seemingly led to Mbedzi's arrest at the hospital one hour later. Additionally, three civilians provided investigators with visual descriptions of Mbedzi: the aforementioned civilian, the driver of the car that took Mbedzi to the hospital, and the hospital security guard. This helped investigators reconstruct Mbedzi's movements and prove that he was at the bombing site. | |
| Physical violence | Mbedzi was tortured in the first days of his detention.[2] | |
| Service provider collaboration | ||
| Mobile network operators | Investigators found Mbedzi's and his comrades' phones at the bombing site, and used the collaboration of mobile network operators to retrospectively geolocate them and analyze their call history.[2] This showed that Mbedzi and his comrades regularly called each other and therefore knew each other, and had traveled together from South Africa to Eswatini the night before the bombing attempt. | |