POLICE BRUTALITY CONTINUES UNABATED

Broken door through which Police gained access to the house and ransacked the room

THE ADAMS squad last week launched yet another drug raid at the house of a man at Ma Joie who was the subject of a Weekly article the week before. The five personnel who conducted the raid came twice to the same house on the same day as the man was not there when they came the first time. The officers who were armed to the teeth with guns, broke down the door to gain entry to the house and punched the man in his eye and mouth after pinning him to the floor. Again they took all of the man's money without counting it or signing any document as proof that the money was being taken. No drugs were found on the premises but the officers who did not identify themselves were aggressive and violent in their conduct. They were all wearing plain clothes and driving a hired blue terios jeep S6534. The object of their search was clearly money for this paper is reliably informed that as soon as they found money they stopped the search and dragged the man bleeding and screaming to central police station where he was detained. However, it is not clear what offence the man had committed to be so arrested and detained as the police did not find any drugs on the premises. It seems that the police had taken strong exception to the article in Weekly and may be taking their revenge on the man.

The National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA) led by an Irishman simply known as “Willy” had the week prior returned the money taken from the same household. This came after Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly published an article about the incident pointing out a worrying trend in the country where officers of ADAMS and NDEA have been accused of stealing money from houses where drug searches are conducted. Even though no drugs are found these officers have allegedly made it a habit to take money, mobile phones, clothing and even kitchen utensils, which then mysteriously disappear. In the case of the search at the man's house, R7000 was taken together with various sums in foreign exchange. The police allegedly took a kitchen knife and some of the man's clothing as well.

Although most of these items have now been returned, the man claims that the sum of R.2000 and some items of clothing were missing. The man said that the Commissioner of Police had personally intervened in this case to resolve the problem. However, personnel of the ADAMS and NDEA have taken exception to the fact that Weekly broke the story and have returned twice to the same house in the same week to harass the gentleman. The man said that he had been tipped that the police intend to plant drugs in his house as they have allegedly done in the case of Roy Beeharry at La Louise. If this is true, it is certainly cause for concern, as no one in this country will ever be safe again. Although these illegal tactics were prominently employed during the one party state to convict political dissidents of crimes which they had not committed for political reasons, it had been abandoned for quite some time now only to reoccur recently. Meanwhile another man who was also arrested last week for a drug related offence whilst driving his pick up truck on the main road, has also claimed in court that the sum of R.22, 000 was also taken from him by the police. Although the man was subsequently released without charge, his money is yet to be returned to him. In fact, the police have denied that there was any money in his truck at the time of the arrest and the incident remains a mystery. These incidents are fast becoming a major embarrassment to the police force as a whole and are making the public hostile against the police. Although President Michel has declared war on drugs, the police involved in stemming out the scourge of drugs in the country are themselves behaving like thugs bent on committing crimes behind the safety of their police uniform.