ROY BEEHARRY, the man charged with drug trafficking, last week walked free from jail without charge after all charges were dropped against him before the Supreme Court. Beeharry, who spent almost three months in jail awaiting his fate, has always professed his innocence. He alleged that the police planted drugs in his house in his absence after carrying out several drug searches at his house. Another man, Robin Barbe, also made exactly the same allegation against the police after the police broke down his front door, pinned him to the floor and repeatedly assaulted him. Barbe claims that the police officers, who numbered five in total and were armed to the teeth, then put a clenched fist in his pocket and exclaimed that there are drugs on him. Barbe said that the police never showed him the drugs and that the same was planted on him. In the meantime, Barbe, like Beeharry before him, languishes in jail awaiting his fate and hoping that eventually the truth will prevail. Sadly, the tragedy with these kind of cases is that justice is a very slow process and even the Attorney-General's Office took three months to review Beeharry's case whilst he languishes in jail; an innocent man!
It is to be remembered that prior to the incident there has been six consecutive drug searches at Barbe's house by both ADAMS and NDEA but no drugs were found. On the day in question the police came three times to Barbe's house and he said he knew that they were lying in wait for him. The NDEA which was recently set up by President James Michel is headed by an Irish man known simply as Willy, whereas the ADAMS is headed by Ron Marie. The two organizations are known to be in direct competition with each other to notch up the most arrest to impress the President of the Republic. It is now established practice for the NDEA to search one place and if nothing is found for the ADAMs to come to the same place to carry out a second search. More often than not, the second search will produce results giving the overall impression that the NDEA is incompetent and the ADAMS effective. The matter of drug searches are now fraught with controversy as some people are openly telling the Courts that the police actually planted drugs on their person or in their house to give the overall impression that they are doing a jolly good job at combating drugs.
Roy Beeharry seems to be a case in point and the fact the Attorney-General himself has seen it fit to drop all charges against him is further testimony that such incidents are in fact happening in Seychelles. In the year of the Constitution, it is a travesty of justice that such practices are allowed to fester with impunity by the powers that be in gross violations of fundamental human rights. People who are entrusted with responsibility in this country hastily create their own little empires where they thrive for personal gain with a carte blanche oblivious and unaccountable to anybody
In the meantime, innocent people are made to suffer the consequences of abuse of power and gross violation of their basic and fundamental constitutional rights. Whilst it is granted that the President cannot do everything himself, serious allegations of corruption, abuse of power, violation of human rights and victimization deserves the personal intervention of the President who has absolute power to remedy the situation. It is the least you can do and the minimum the people of Seychelles expects, Mr. President!