The Seychelles Police Dog Unit was established in 1972. The dog section which comprised five male German Shepherd dogs was housed at the Union Vale prison. Here they are with their respectful “Boss”.

From left to right: Inspector Chang-Waye and Mick, P.S Sauzier and Rocky, P.C Lesperance and Bruce,  P.C Bijoux and Rubert , P.C Payet and Rebel.

Compiled by Tony Mathiot

The Marine Accident Investigation Board (MAIB) has completed its final report following the incident and loss of lives on fishing vessel Faith, which occurred on the evening of August 13, 2016.

The investigation was initiated by the MAIB on August 14, 2016.

The report has been submitted to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Transport Joel Morgan.

Commenting on the incident, Minister Morgan said: “As I receive this report, I am reminded just how tragic this incident was to not only the families of those who died but to the entire Seychellois nation as well. Our main motivation is to learn from this occurrence and to ensure that we apply the recommendations that this report has, so as to ensure that such an event is averted in the future. The sea is often unforgiving and our history documents very well events of vessels sinking or going missing. With the report in hand I will now sit down with respective agencies to review and to ensure that we act on the key recommendations that the MAIB has made. We owe it to the families and to those who survived and all Seychellois to ensure that more is done to avert such tragedies in the future,” said Minister Morgan.

The report having been formally handed over to Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Transport will be closely reviewed in consultation with the Seychelles Maritime Safety Administration and the Seychelles Police.

It is to be recalled that in the incident, which occurred halfway between Praslin and La Digue, three persons – two women and a man – lost their lives.

More than 80kg of drugs were destroyed over the weekend.

The 79.779kg of cannabis herbal material and 3.954kg of cannabis were burnt

at the Seychelles Hospital’s incinerator in the presence of members of the judiciary criminal justice stakeholders committee.

They included the judiciary, attorney general, National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDEA), prison authorities and the police.

Cases related to the drugs have either ended in a sentence, acquittal or the defendants have exhausted their right of appeal.

Regarding the Charita drug case all the lawyers agreed that the exhibit could be destroyed – 79kg of herbal material along with other substances.

The Registrar of the Supreme Court Julianna Esticot said the drug-destroying exercise was a necessary one.

Gino Jean, Achille Agathine and Pierre Pothin from the Police Force have successfully undertaken a local training in the field of drugs and explosives detection and general purpose work.

They did so through a refresher course organised by the Seychelles Police Force in partnership with the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA). 

The dog handlers received their certificate yesterday in a ceremony which took place at the Seychelles Police Academy, Pointe Larue.

Present at the ceremony were the Minister for Home Affairs Mitcy Larue, the Commissioner of Police Reginald Elizabeth, the chief executive (CEO) of SCAA Gilbert Faure, among other high police officers.

Commissioner Elizabeth stated that Seychelles has recognised the vital role that police dogs contribute to law enforcement.

“The Seychelles Police Force has recognised the vital role that police dogs contribute to law enforcement which includes narcotic detection, explosives detection and general purpose crime prevention. Police dogs are utilised globally in the fight against crime and for this reason, the Seychelles Police Force intends to upgrade and expand its police dog capacity,” he said.

He added that Seychelles’ training will provide much better security at the Seychelles International Airport.

“In our dedication to upgrade the security at the International Airport, we have embarked on a joint project with the SCAA where the common objective is to have detection dogs with the ability to perform various searches,” he said.

The Seychelles Maritime Safety Authority has urged all fishermen and seafarers to be more responsible when at sea and notify the authorities each time they leave port.

They should also ensure that they have at least basic safety equipment before setting out to sea.

The director of the SMSA, Captain Joachim Valmont, made this statement yesterday during a press conference at the SMSA conference room.

The press conference was to give more details on the rescue mission that took place on Saturday night and Sunday morning after a boat accident claimed the lives of three persons – two women and a man – off Round Island, about half way between La Digue and Praslin.

Captain Valmont expressed his condolences to the family and friends of the three victims – Cynthia and Helena César, and Bernard Camille – on behalf of all the authorities involved, before going on to give details about the SMSA’s involvement in the rescue mission which ended up saving the lives of Aubrey Jacqueline and six-year-old Rio Chang-Tave.

According to information gathered by our reporter on La Digue and later confirmed by police spokesman Jean Toussaint, the boat capsized in the Ros Kannal area after a lady – Cynthia César – had fallen overboard and the other occupants all moved on one side to try and retrieve her.

After the accident, which occurred at about 7pm, the boat’s skipper and owner, Teddy Stravens, managed to swim to the Mary Anne, a yacht which was then moored off La Digue. The crew took him back to the accident area and after they could find neither sign of his boat nor of any passengers, they brought him back to the island.

“Upon hearing of the incident, I immediately contacted the Seychelles Coast Guard to ensure that they have received the information about the incident and to find out what their response was,” said Captain Valmont, who explained that the coast guard immediately took control of the operation while the SMSA took charge from the command centre to help coordinate the rescue operation.

He went on to explain how they sought help from the HMAS Perth that was in port at the time and the vessel provided one of the helicopters to help with the operation.

Also present at the press conference was the chairman of the Maritime Accident Investigation Board (MAIB), Captain Robert Morgan, Police Commissioner Reginald Elizabeth and the Seychelles Coast Guard’s on-scene Commander during the operation, Captain Hans Radegonde.

Captain Morgan noted that the role of the MAIB is to investigate and establish the facts and causes of the accident so that they can eventually make recommendations to the SMSA to ensure such incidents do not happen again.

“We began our investigation on Saturday night and we have interviewed a number of people in our attempts to get the information we need and we are still doing this as the investigation is ongoing,” said Captain Morgan.

He added that he was not at liberty to reveal any findings so far until the investigation is complete.

Captain Radegonde on his part was on the scene of the accident and he explained that the rough seas and poor visibility made it very hard to locate the victims at night and that the wind and current played a big part in moving the boat from where the accident was reported to have happened and this made the search even more difficult.

“We continued our search early the next morning, with the assistance of two helicopters and a plane and it was then that we found the two survivors,” said Captain Radegonde, before adding: “The older man was in okay condition, but that of the little boy was much more critical and after administering first aid, we handed both of them over to the Baie Ste Anne hospital for further treatment.

With regard to the third victim, Bernard Camille, he was only found when the both was ashore as at the time of the search and rescue operation, two civilian boats took the wreckage and tugged it back to La Digue.

“We did not have any contact with the wreckage while at sea and if we did, we had divers on board who would have been instructed to search the wreckage before it was taken ashore,” added Captain Radegonde.

Police Commissioner Elizabeth on his part revealed that the skipper of the boat has appeared before the court and has been released on certain conditions while the investigation into the accident continues.

Many people have been asking about the role of the Marine Police in this incident and here the Police Commissioner explained that the Marine Police normally patrol coastal areas and not the open sea.

“We knew that there would be a lot of water activities during this time and our officers were stationed on Praslin as their boats were not equipped to patrol the rough seas between the two islands,” the commissioner said.

In view of this incident, questions have been asked about maritime safety and here Captain Valmont explained that it is the responsibility of every fisherman or skipper to notify the port of their destination, number of passengers, their return date, etc… but often these things are not done.

Three persons – two women and a man – have lost their lives following a boat accident which happened on Saturday evening off Round Island, about half way between La Digue and Praslin.

Named ‘Faith’, the converted Mini Mahé with a 15 horse power engine and added cabin had left La Digue about half an hour before and was on its way to Praslin with six persons on board. They had spent the day at the island’s feast.

According to information gathered by our reporter on La Digue and later confirmed by police spokesman Jean Toussaint, the boat capsized in the Ros Kannal area after a lady – Cynthia César – had fallen over board and the other occupants all moved on one side to try and retrieve her.

After the accident, which occurred at about 7pm, the boat’s skipper and owner, Teddy Stravens, managed to swim to the ‘Mary Anne’, a yacht which was then moored off La Digue. The crew took him back to the accident area and after they could find neither sign of his boat nor of any passengers, they brought him back to the island.

The alert had then been given and an intensive nearly 15-hour coordinated search followed. It was conducted by the Seychelles Coast Guard, Air Force, Seychelles Maritime Safety Administration (SMSA) and Marine Police with the help of local aviation company Zil Air, Australian navy vessel HMS Perth and various vessels from Praslin and La Digue. These included the smallest vessel of the ‘Cat Coco’which is based on La Digue and Praslin’s ‘Cat Rose’.

After the night search proved unsuccessful, rescue operations resumed early Sunday morning. By mid day, two persons – Aubrey Jacqueline and six-year-old Rio Chang Tave – were pulled alive from the relatively rough seas. Three other persons were unfortunately found dead. They have been identified as Cynthia and Helena César, and Bernard Camille aged 65 years old.

Michel Godley, normally a sailor on one of the tankers of Seychelles Petroleum Company (Seypec) who helped in the rescue operations on board the ‘Lady Caroline’ skippered by Louis d’Offay, was spending the weekend on La Digue. He recounts how Aubrey Jacqueline and Rio Chang Tave were saved.

The ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Seychelles, Yin Lixian, yesterday donated a set of computers and laserjet printers to the Seychelles police department in Victoria.

It forms part of the China’s contribution to the department’s planned database management system project.

The equipment, consisting of 20 computers and 12 laserjet printers of the Lenovo brand, were handed over to the Seychelles Commissioner of Police, Reginald Elizabeth in the presence of Charles Bastienne, Minister for Home Affairs, senior officials and management members of the Seychelles police and officials from the Chinese embassy in Seychelles.

This was later followed by the signing of the handing over documents between ambassador Lixian and Minister Bastienne.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is to introduce a new database management system for the police department which will link all stations, including the Criminal Investigation Department, to enable information sharing across the country.

In his address of appreciation, Commissioner Elizabeth referred to a previous meeting with the media where he expressed the need for the police department to embrace technology for professionalism and for better service delivery to the community.

“This donation of twenty new computer sets and twelve new printers from one of our generous partners has come at a very opportune time indeed and will no doubt play a significant role in making the anticipated fully-fledged network system to be commissioned soon, a reality,” said the police commissioner, adding the donation is a big step forward in that direction.

The police have confirmed an incident which was reported at around 3.34pm on December 2, 2016 whereby a Belgian couple was robbed at Anse Forbans beach.

With the help of the public, the suspect, a 28-year-old man from Grand Anse Mahé, was arrested and appeared before the court at around 6pm on the same day because the couple was due to leave the country that same night.

He has been remanded for 14 days after which he will re-appear in court on December 16, 2016.

The Seychelles Police yesterday commissioned a new communication and command centre which they say will empower them to deliver a better and professional service to the community and improve on their goals and objectives in order to achieve their vision and mission.

The commissioning formed part of activities to mark World Peace Day yesterday. Other activities by the force included blood donation at the Seychelles Police Academy at Pointe Larue and a Special Peace Service at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Victoria.

The centre is equipped with high-definition surveillance cameras and flat screens operating on wi-fi connectivity covering a large area of Victoria and its vicinity, as well as telephone and radio systems where officers deal with public queries and calls on a 24hr basis.

The centre has also been refurbished so as to create a conducive working environment for its staff and operators.

It will provide services which will include efficient telephone operators; punctual radio dispatches; GPS monitoring of all police vehicles; CCTV surveillance and electronic access to the number of officers and where they are deployed daily.

Present at the commissioning were the Minister for Home Affairs Charles Bastienne; Commissioner of Police Reginald Elizabeth; other high officials of the force and the security consultant of the CCTV project Steve Garrad.

Superintendent Francis Songoire gave Minister Bastienne an explanation on how the command centre functions and the services it offers.

The Marine Police Unit yesterday reached another milestone with the handing over and commissioning of two specialised boats donated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and with main sponsors the Japanese government.

The boats –made of H/D UV resistant material and equipped with trailers to offload, VHF radio, VHF marine antenna, marine compasses, GPS/echo-sounder, among others – were handed over to the Marine Police Unit by the Minister for Home Affairs Charles Bastienne and deputy Ambassador of Japan to Seychelles, Mikio Mori.

The hand-over ceremony took place at the ex-Seychelles Coast Guard jetty on Bois de Rose Avenue.

Built in Sri Lanka, the boats were funded through the Trust Fund Contact Group and in particular the government of Japan which donated through the Trust Fund.

Also present at the ceremony were the Programme Officer for Maritime Crime of Indian Ocean (UNODC) Shanaka Jayasekara, high officials of the Seychelles Police Force, UNODC and the Japanese government.

It was the Commissioner of Police Ernest Quatre and Mr Jayasekara who officially signed the hand-over documents.