VZCZCXRO1883
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHPL #0143/01 1320920
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 120920Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY PORT LOUIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4541
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHAN/AMEMBASSY ANTANANARIVO 0817
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 3034
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 2527
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT LOUIS 000143 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/E FOR MARIA BEYZEROV 
AF/RSO FOR JUN BANDO AND MIKE BITTRICK 
S/P FOR PETER HARELL 
L FOR BUCHHOLS AND BINIAZ 
ANTAN FOR DAO 
NAIROBI FOR KUSLO 
PRETORIA FOR LEGAT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/06/2019 
TAGS: MARR PREL MASS MOPPS SE
SUBJECT: PROBLEMS WITH PIRACY TRIALS IN SEYCHELLES - LACK 
OF LEGAL FRAMEWORK 
 
REF: A. PORT LOUIS 132 
     ¶B. PORT LOUIS 130 
     ¶C. PORT LOUIS 137 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Virginia Blaser for reasons 1.4 (b,d) 
 
¶1. (C) As of 7 May, the Seychelles had 23 suspected Somali 
pirates in detention on the main island of Mahe.  These 
arrests were largely a result of international partners 
providing surveillance and pursuit capabilities.  GOS legal 
and political leaders voice no consistent analysis on how to 
successfully prosecute the 23 arrested to date, and worry 
about the legal framework for future arrests.  The UK, the 
EU, and the UN have promised legal, technical and financial 
support, but some observers fear the current detainees may 
not be successfully convicted. A myriad of options -- from 
creating new laws to using unrelated laws to charge the 
suspects -- are under consideration by GOS and other 
partners.  In the meantime, the detainees will remain in 
custody and their cases may be facing repeated legal 
deferrals. 
 
------------------------------- 
UNCLEAR CURRENT LEGAL FRAMEWORK 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) According to Seychelles Attorney General (AG) Ronny 
Govinden, the GOS is finding it problematic to determine 
under what laws the government can process the 23 suspected 
Somali pirates now in Seychelles custody. Piracy laws are 
lacking, he said, so he may prosecute the detainees using the 
2007 terrorism act (based on the fact that the Somalis "had 
ammunition and represented a threat to the economy"), or 
perhaps on immigration violations, illegal fishing, or a 
combination of the above.  According to the AG, their current 
"best" piracy law would be local penal code that links their 
law to UK law and is in accordance with the "international 
law of piracy on the high seas."  AG further noted the 
possibility of GOS using the 'Offenses at Sea' Act, which 
equates penalties and offenses committed on the high seas 
with those committed on land, for example armed robbery 
committed at sea would be treated the same as armed robbery 
committed on land.  The evidence against the detainees is 
largely circumstantial, and makes it additionally difficult 
to prosecute.  The cases they could build are reliant on the 
testimony of officials of foreign ships (French, Spanish, 
Indian), which may or may not be able to testify in a manner 
which assists convictions.  Information sharing is lacking, 
Govinden said with a great deal of frustration. 
 
¶3. (C) In a 5 May meeting with the CDA, Anthony Fernando, the 
former Attorney General and now one of the four judges on the 
Seychelles Appeals Court, opined that the GOS may need to 
revert to the 1972 penal code to process the current Somali 
cases.  Chapter 158, subsection 65 states: "Any person who is 
guilty of piracy or any crime connected with or relating or 
akin to piracy shall be liable to be tied and punished 
according to the law of England for the time being in force." 
There is some debate, Fernando said, whether the language 
"for the time being in force" means the UK law in place at 
the time the penal code was passed into law in Seychelles, or 
whether it means at the time a piracy crime is committed 
(i.e. modern laws).  He feared that there is enough ambiguity 
in the law as pertaining to piracy, that a decent defense 
lawyer could defeat the AG's efforts for prosecution. 
 
¶4. (C)  In a May 5 meeting with EMBOFFS, Declan Barber, 
Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and close 
security consultant to the President (see ref B), opined that 
the GOS "absolutely does not" have appropriate anti-piracy 
laws in place. 
 
----------------------------------- 
ANOTHER LEGAL ISSUE - CHILD PIRATES 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) According to Barber, the GOS faces additional legal 
complications. For example, it may be impossible for the 
 
PORT LOUIS 00000143  002 OF 003 
 
 
Government to try a minor for piracy; a serious question 
given that at least two of the suspect pirates are minors and 
 one of them is only 15 years old.  In the Seychelles, he 
said, it is usual for any minor suspected of either civil or 
criminal crimes to be released without trial.  The head of 
the opposition, Wavel Ramkalawan, also commented on the 
"child pirate" issue, citing his concern that the AG publicly 
stated he would prosecute any pirate as an adult -- 
regardless of age.  Ramkalawan opined that the child pirates 
engender a growing amount of sympathy among the Seychellois 
people, who regularly see photos in the press of the suspect 
pirates.  Rumors that when found the pirates had little food, 
were near starving, had no proper clothes and were "forced 
onto khat could cause the public to see them -- especially 
the child pirates -- as victims, he said. 
 
 
---------------------- 
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT 
---------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) The President (ref C) and the AG both commented on 
support the GOS hopes to receive from the UN, EU, and UK, 
particularly for technical assistance regarding the legal 
framework addressing piracy. According to Amy Bowers, Vice 
Consul at the British High Commission in Seychelles, HMG 
recently sponsored a group of UK legal experts, to include 
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) lawyer Katherine 
Shepard, to review the current Seychellois laws regarding 
piracy.  Although the final report was not yet completed (CDA 
asked for a copy when it was), Bowers commented that in her 
close out briefings with the UK team, they said the GOS lacks 
key assets for prosecution, including the lack of translators 
to assist during the trials. Interestingly, Bowers mentioned 
that she has reason to believe a British attorney, paid for 
by unknown persons in Somalia, would be coming to Seychelles 
to make up part of the defense team for some of the detained 
Somalis. The first legal review is scheduled to take place on 
12 May.  According to Bowers, the UN Office on Drugs and 
Crime (UNODC) also seeks to provide assistance for both the 
prosecution and defense, to supply and interpreter/translator 
for the hearings, and to expand the capacity of the prisons 
and the judges.  Bowers concluded that in response to the 
'wish list' of dipnotes received by all of the diplomatic 
missions, the UNODC stepped in to help coordinate the aid. 
In a separate meeting with AG, he also said that UNODC 
assistance was in the pipeline and that the Seychelles 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) had the lead on 
coordinating this.  If the international community wanted GOS 
cooperation for capturing and prosecuting pirates, such 
cooperation comes with a price tag, he stressed. 
 
------------------------- 
PARTNERS OR QUASI PARTNERS? 
--------------------------- 
 
¶7. (C) Across the board -- from the President on down -- the 
GOS officials opined that the GOS could not, and would not, 
provide trials for pirates caught on the high seas who were 
involved in incidents that did not have a direct connection 
to the Seychelles. GOS officials seemed concerned about the 
GOS's legal and logistical capacity, and they  voiced concern 
that partner nations (i.e. the Europeans) may be considering 
a way around this. For example, both Jean Paul Adam, 
Secretary of State to the Presidency, and Leader of the 
Opposition Ramkalawan, recounted their suspicions that one of 
three groups arrested in Seychelles EEZ was the same group 
picked up a day or so previously by the French military. 
Both suspected the French had picked the pirates up, then 
brought them into the Seychelles EEZ before letting them go 
to be "found" by locals and thus fall to GOS to process. 
 
------------------- 
WHAT ABOUT NEW LAWS 
------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) According to Barber, he has arranged an Irish expert 
to travel to the Seychelles to begin assisting the GOS in 
 
PORT LOUIS 00000143  003 OF 003 
 
 
drafting a new and more potent piracy law. Barber was 
optimistic that it would only take a week or so to get a new 
law drafted, and a relatively short period of time after to 
get such a law passed by the Parliament. The AG was a bit 
less optimistic a new law could be written and passed by 
Parliament so quickly; he opined it could take several 
months. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶9.  (C) From our meetings throughout the GOS, it appears 
clear that the Seychelles authorities remain uncertain how to 
legally move forward on the current piracy cases. They likely 
lack the laws and the evidence to obtain a piracy conviction. 
 They will be seeking some convictions, however, and some 
sectors report that the GOS hopes to have pirates on hand to 
exchange for some of the Seychellois still being held by 
pirates in Somalia (additional report to follow).  The 
Seychellois are looking for both financial and technical 
support from partner nations to assist them in these and 
future trials. 
BLASER