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Could the guilty be innocent? Revisting the Amicale arson

18 juillet 2013, 21:51

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Could the guilty be innocent? Revisting the Amicale arson

 

A recently published report, coordinated by Rama Valayden, called ‘Wrongfully Convicted’ could see the four accused suspects of what the report terms as a ‘miscarriage of justice’ as being victims.

For those of us struggling to remember the original circumstances, the incident goes back 14 years, to May 23 1999, when the suspects were convicted of setting fi re to a gaming house (L’Amicale) in Port Louis that caused the death of seven people.

The convicted claimed innocence from the start. The said incident was immediately linked to spillover violence between fans that erupted as a result of the Mauritian football league fi nal at Anjalay Coopen Stadium that had been played on the day between Scouts Club and Fire Brigade. The violence resulted from disgruntled fans that were unhappy with the result of the match events which saw two of Scouts’ goals disallowed, which, had they been allowed, would have secured Scouts the league title.

The report, which recently gained President Kailash Purryag’s support, is described as having the objective to “publish the findings of our enquiry together with our conclusions and critics as regards to the manner in which the police enquiry was conducted”.

Over 115 people (stretching from retired police officers, SSU and SMF officers, firemen, bouncers from the gaming house to residents in the neighbourhood who were never interviewed in the initial enquiry) were subsequently interviewed in order to gather and retrieve imperative information – which is reported to have been grossly overlooked – pertaining to the case.

The report also claims that a number of disturbing facts have subsequently come to light regarding the preliminary enquiry and the assizes and questions the speed at which the accused were convicted, adding that “the assizes lasted for 11 days and it took the jury a little under two hours to deliberate and reach a verdict”.

Key oversights – according to the report – look at the many factors that additionally led to the false convictions. These range from a dejected police force, lack of coordination in the law enforcement services, fire services not responding adequately, little evidence gathered from the scene to witnesses being ignored. The report adds that “the police case theory in the Amicale arson was most simplistic and naïve. Many factors such as immense public and political pressure combined with a certain degree of noble cause corruption led to a serious case of tunnel vision by the investigating team”.

The report thus puts forward several recommendations as a means of preventing any future miscarriages of justice. These include the setting up of a scientific laboratory under the aegis of a ministry of justice, protocols to be established acting as guidance on how exhibits should be preserved, that the entire fire services be overhauled and adapted to the present century and prosecuting counsel not be present at the appeal to avoid any bias and tunnel vision taking place once more.  

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