“INCOMPETENT POLICE HANDLING”

Appeal Court Judge slams Police and state lawyers’ incompetence as suspected Drug traffickers walk free

As if the ongoing lapses of the Police force under Commissioner Kishnan Labonte wasn’t bad enough, Court of Appeal Judge Anthony Fernando added insult to injury this past week when dismissing a case against two suspected drug traffickers on the grounds of “incompetent handling” of the case by Police.

As a result, Collin and Gina Forte of Les Cannelles, Mahe, had their respective 30-year Prison sentence annulled although the Prosecution presented significant evidence implicating the Forte couple in bringing into the country 1.5kg of Heroin with the help of a female Air Seychelles cabin crew.

Acquitting the couple in a dumbstruck courtroom Judge Fernando said that the case had been “badly handled, investigated and prosecuted” by police officers and lawyers of the Attorney General’s office.

The prosecution’s case fell apart upon inspection by the Court of Appeal, which outlined thatthe chain of evidence implicating the couple had holes.

Judge Fernando said: “Even if we are to accept the entirety of the Prosecution evidence, one cannot conclude that the drugs found in the tin were those that the appellants (the Fortes) had placed therein, in view of the break in the chain of evidence and the absence of the fingerprints of the appellants on the other exhibits (namely plastic bags and coffee sachets which held the heroin). “This is the result of incompetence, I am sorry to say”, said Judge Fernando.

“Pull up your socks”

“The only message we can send out by delivering judgements of this nature is to ensure they (the Police) pull up their socks and attain the expected standards”.Fernando stuck the boot in: “It is so difficult when you have a person convicted by the Supreme Court, and everyone knows the guy is guilty, yet when they come before us, we let them off.“ It stands to look bad for us, but at the same time I would rather let that happen than let the standards of this court slip”.

The ex-Cabin crew implicated in the case, who had turned State evidence, also said that she had been forced to sign a confession statement she had not written under threats by Irish officers working for the NDEA.

Furthermore, key witnesses had not been called by the Prosecution to give evidence during the Supreme Court trial.