This story will most probably drive you mad with anger and frustration. You will probably ask yourself why is this kind of atrocity is taking place in our little country. The answer, we are afraid, is not as simple as we would have liked it to be. It is a far more complicated and complex affair than just pure arrogance or sadism.
Violence has unfortunately become a way of life in
This is the story of 20 yr old Denis Marie. Last Wednesday he was taken from the home he shares with his mum at Quincy Village at around 2 am in the morning by the police. He was brought to the Central Police Station in Victoria, where he was locked up in a cell until 8 am the next day. He was taken from his cell in the morning by a group of officers for interrogation and brought upstairs on the first floor of the building where there is a sound proof room. Denis could identify at least five members of the police who physically abused him while he was in their custody in the sound proof room.
We can reveal the names of the officers as one Ronnie Julienne, Marcus Labiche, Fred Emile, another person with the certain Hoareau and lastly Raymond Dubel. It was the same police officer Dubel who was involved in the shooting of Jimmy Marie – no relation to Denis Marie, the subject of another article in this issue. Jimmy Marie received a bullet wound in his leg and had to be admitted to hospital. It appears that police officer Dubel likes to shoot first and asks questions later. But when it comes to asking questions, Dubel and his fellow officers have a way of doing it.
Denis Marie’s troubles with the police started when they arrested him for questioning about a break-in which had occurred in a house at Belonie earlier in the week. Denis Marie refused to admit that he had anything to do with this particular incident. Not only did he not remain silent, as he is entitled to as of right under the Constitution, he volunteered an explanation as well which did not satisfy the group of sadistic police officers.
The beating started straight away with a normal black truncheon, the kind seen with police officers and guards from security firms. For the torture, which is what the treatment of Denis Marie was in our opinion, a 5-inch thick polythene pipe was further introduced by the officers to help enhance the punishment they were inflicting on the young man.
Marie’s hands were handcuffed and his feet were tied together. Every now and then a rope was place d around his neck, pulled tight to simulate hanging. He was so severely beaten that his skin turned blue and black, in an effort to make him confess to a crime he claimed he had not committed. Sometimes, he said they would untie and open his legs and kicked him in his private parts. “They kicked me in the scrotum so hard with their shoes, I yelled because it was so painful, but still they carried on. I thought I was going to die”, Denis told ‘Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly’ from his hospital bed at the
This was not the end of his torturing in the hands of these rogue and sadistic police officers. Marie said they in fact carried on beating him for twelve hours with short intervals in between for them to rest. “They got me to eat the sole of their footwear; they kicked me in the mouth; my lips are torn and swollen” Denis Marie told LNSW. “I laid motionless on the floor almost unconscious and had lost memory of where I was”, he said. By 8 pm Marie was in a desperate condition, totally worn out, swollen, bruised and bleeding from the injuries he had sustained from the beatings. The officers got scared that he might die in their hands. They called for an ambulance and Denis was taken to the emergency unit at the
The police have since arrested someone else in connection with the break-in at Belonie. This person is not connected to Denis Marie in anyway. Denis Marie has been eliminated completely from the investigation. In other words he is totally innocent of the crimes he was being accused of committing.
At the time of going to press no one from the police force has visited Denis Marie in hospital. The matter, it seems, is being pushed under the carpet; and a major cover-up is being engineered, which is why we are exposing it in the glare of international publicity. This kind of behaviour cannot be tolerated; we are calling on the personal intervention of President Michel to help get to the bottom of this matter, not only to rid the police force of these rogue elements but also to make sure they are convicted to long terms of imprisonment for crimes against humanity, which torture is.