Hiiraan Online

Last month, the director of DiS MoI Mr. Lyndley Couronne wrote to the Commissioner of Prisons Mr. Jean Bruneau to seek his permission to visit the prisoners but he was told that there was already a Somali who is looking after the prisoners and that a legislation prevented access to the detainees.

“I firmly denounce the attitude of the Commissioner of Prisons Mr. Bruneau. He is refusing to communicate and there seems to be double standards in terms of visit to prisoners. He should understand that the prisons are not his private properties”, Mr.Couronne told News on Sunday.

He added that he was intrigued by the legislation (or regulation) evoked by Mr. Bruneau. “ I gather that it is the Prime Minister’s Office which always take the final decision. Mr. Bruneau’s argument are quite absurd. I wonder whether the Somali to whom he is referring is exempt from that legislation”, stated Mr. Couronne.    
      
He recalled that in not a distant past, in his capacity as director of Amnesty Mauritius, he visited prisoners from Congo, Iraq and so on and even South Africans imprisoned for drug related offences. Contacted by News on Sunday, we were informed by the Mauritius Prisons Service that Mr Jean Bruneau is currently out of the country and that he is the only authorised  person to talk on the issue of Somalian detainees. Mr. Bruneau was not reachable on his mobile either.

However the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions replied to one of the queries of Mr. Couronne when we contacted them. We were told that the Somali detainees will be brought to court on August 31st and that the detainees have been provided with the services of lawyers.

A press communiqué on the “Piracy case” issued by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions on 4th June, 2013 reads as follows: “ Following an incident at sea on or about the 5th January 2013 at about 240 Nautical Miles off the coast of Somalia, 12 Somali citizens were apprehended in an operation carried out by the EUNAVF OR (European Union Naval Force). (…)

Pursuant to the transfer agreement signed between EUNAVFOR and the Government of Mauritius on 14 th July 2011 a request was made for the transfer of the suspected pirates for trial, to which Mauritius agreed. The handing over of the suspected pirates was effected at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport on 24th January 2013. The Police has submitted the file for advice and the Director of Public Prosecutions has advised that the 12 suspected pirates be prosecuted for an act of piracy on high seas (Breach of sections 3(1) (a), 3(3) and 7 of the Piracy and Maritime Violence Act 2011) . The suspected pirates will be tried before the Intermediate Court of the Republic of Mauritius”.

The accused parties who are Somali nationals are:
1. Abdeoulkader Mohamed Ali, 22 years old ;
2. Said Mohamed Hassan, 23 years old ;
3. Ahmed Mohamed Ismael, 27 years old;
4. Shafi Mohamed Osman, 22 years old;
5. Hassan Salad Omar, 25 years old;
6. Said Omar Farah, 22 years old;
7. Mohamed Abdiahi Ahmed, 45 years old;
8. Ali Hassan Mohamed, 21years old;
9. Abdi Mohamed Kidiye, 37 years old;
10. Abdi Ahmed Yussuf, 20 years old;
11. Abdillahi Mohamed Ahmed, 24 years old;
12. Mahad Mohamed Ibrahim. 21 years old

Interestingly enough, the denial of access to the Somali prisoners has as backdrop the holding of the Inter-regional seminar to facilitate the participation of LCDs and SIDS in the Human Rights Council (HRC) and its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. Among the OHCHR delegates is none other than H.E. Remigiusz A. Henczel, the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The seminar is scheduled from 30th to 31st July at Le Méridien.