SEYCHELLOIS BEWARE!

SEYCHELLOIS Beware! The arbitrary practice of planting drugs on people and what are considered as “undesirables;” a prolific political tool employed in the one party state era, like the pipeline at Central Bank, has been revived once again. It is alive and well and thriving in the country. Since the beginning of the year no less than two persons have amazingly claimed that the police had planted drugs on them. It seems that no one is safe from this practice. Like HIV, it is a virus that is spreading right under the noses of the Commissioner of Police and the powers that be. Tomorrow, it can be you, your sons and daughters or even your mothers and fathers. No one is safe.

All it takes is one bad cop. One bad cop who wakes up one morning and decides to target you. After the evil deed is done, the whole system is co-opted and becomes accessory to an illegal act commenced by one bad cop. The other police officers, the Judge, the Prosecutor are all co-opted into a corrupt and unjust practice which has the single aim of ultimately sending one innocent man to prison for 8 years!

These offences have one characteristic in common and it is apparent in all cases where people claim that the police had planted drugs on them. All the offences are “Trafficking” charges and not “Possession”. The quantity planted is always over the 25 grams bench mark in order to get the Judge to remand you in prison for 12 months or more whilst you await your trial. “This is a serious offence” the Prosecutor will say all the time and every time, week after week after week to the Judge. “It is on the rise in the Country” they will all sing in perfect unison. Finally, they will all sing the last verse of this well rehearsed song with gusto in a high pitched shrill: “The offence is on the rise and there is public outcry!”

Does that sound funny to you? Then come to Court every week and you will see this almost comical scenario repeating itself week after week after week. In 99.9 percent of the cases the poor man or woman who had the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time will be locked at Montagne Posee Prison for months awaiting trial. There he or she will be humiliated daily as the prison warden with the twisted mind will open his buttocks daily to have a sneak preview on the pretext that he is looking for drugs.

The truth of the matter is that the whole country is being overwhelmed by the drug epidemic in the same way as Aids are destroying our youths. Prostitution is also on the rise and drug related crimes are spiraling out of control. The solution is not to plant drugs on people suspected of trafficking in drugs to give the overall impression that the police are doing a jolly good job at combating drugs. The police have made it a habit to trump up the figures on SBC television and Seychelles nation everyday to impress the President. The reality is the police as an institution is a total failure. Nothing has changed under the newly appointed Commissioner of Police. People are still being shot at, beaten up, locked up, framed, and tortured almost on a daily basis. Trumping up the figures in the national media to give a contrary picture is not helping anyone.

The reality is that the system simply cannot cope with the wave of crimes currently sweeping the country. Something has to be done. Every day in this country people are being charged with drugs and drugs related offences.

The Police, Attorney General's Office, the Courts and the Prison cannot cope with the sheer number. People are being locked up on a daily basis in prison awaiting trial which invariably will take place a year or more later. The solution as seen by the judiciary has been to lock everybody up and throw away the key. Bail is almost non existent and lawyers have complained that applications for bail in these types of cases are met with deaf hears. Some lawyers have simply given up trying altogether. The judiciary has to find more creative legal solution to the problem instead of locking up everybody who has the misfortune of being produced before the Courts charged with a drug related offence

 Locking up the Head of a family for instance creates more problems in the community and society at large as mothers and children suffer. Some mothers and their daughters have been known to resort to prostitution to feed the family whilst the young son has to pick up where the father has left by himself selling drugs to make ends meet at home. The “One Chance” approach will alleviate this particular problem. The Court has to give these people one chance at bail with tough conditions imposed. Only if the bail condition is breached should a person suffer detention until trial.

Admittedly the drug epidemic is now a matter of national security. A solution needs to be found urgently and the matter must be open to national debate. Simply locking these young productive men and women behind bars and throwing away the key is not the solution. Perhaps the way forward is to employ the meagre resources available to fight the hard drugs like cocaine and heroin first. Once this is under control resources can then be allocated to fight the soft drugs like cannabis and hashish. Spreading sparse resources to fight all types of drugs at the same time is not effective use of resources and it is not making a dent into the drug culture. The Courts should also change its mindset and attitudes.

A clear distinction needs to be made between hard drugs and soft drugs. That is what the legislature intended and to apply a blanket rule to all drugs is hardly doing the system justice.

May 16, 2008
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles