Mrs Lyvette Hermitte believes that her son, Rickie Hermitte, was also murdered by a member of the State Security and that the police should consider the man the prime suspect in her son’s death. Mrs Hermitte has made her allegation based on a statement her son made to the police almost exactly four months before he was killed in a savage knife attack. In the statement he identified a known member of the state security as the assailant who tried to kill him using a revolver on 16 June 2006.
27-year-old Rickie Hermitte died on 19 October 2006 from stab wounds he received on his body, one of which penetrated his heart. Hermitte was found on the veranda of a house at Sans Soucis by the occupant of the house in the early evening of October 19th in a collapsed state and bleeding profusely.
According to a police communiqué published in the Seychelles Nation (the government controlled daily newspaper) on 21 October 2006, “the police had received information at around 7 pm on Thursday that an injured man came to a house at Kan Tobruk, Sans Souci, asking for help. The police and medical services responded to the call for help and the victim was later declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
According to the lady at the house where Hermitte went to seek help, it was around 6.50 pm when she heard someone at her front door asking for help. When she opened the door she saw a man face down on the floor of the veranda of her neighbour’s house.
Hermitte, who had numerous scratch marks on his body, also had a (stab) wound on the top part of his back as well as on his stomach. The police have started “an inquiry into the incident.”
By all accounts, Rickie Hermitte was savagely attacked. According to the autopsy report the victim received “ a stab wound in the fifth intercostal space on the left side of the sternum 3 x 2cm in size; a stab wound on the upper back 3 x 2cm in size and 3.5cm deep; the wall of the right ventricle of the heart is penetrated with the stab wound 1.5 x 1cm in size; the wall of the thoracic cavity is penetrated in the fifth intercostal space on the left side of the sternum and blood 220ml in the thoracic cavity”.
Mrs Hermitte says that despite her efforts to obtain more information on the progress of the inquiry, including a meeting with the Commissioner of Police Mr Gerard Waye Hive in January this year, there seems to be a wall of silence from the authorities. She said that the car, which her son was driving on the night of his murder, was found that same day abandoned at Curio Road – Sans Soucis. “I know that blood samples from the car were sent to South Africa for analysis. The police also have information that three people were seen in the car earlier in the evening.”
Mrs Hermitte says she intends to fight for a public inquest to be held so that an independent person, such as a magistrate, can hear evidence in public with a view to establish whether the death of her son was a criminal act undertaken by one or more persons. She said that police should question the state security agent identified in her son’s statement to the police and establish his whereabouts on that day using information from his cell phone records. An inquest can be called for by the Attorney General’s Office if foul play is suspected. Until now no such request has been made by this office to the Courts.