France wants Seychellois justice to be a little more active towards pirates

(B2 in Victoria) Hervé Morin, the French Minister of Defence, hammered it home during his visit to the Seychelles on Sunday, both to the journalists present and to the Seychelles authorities. Piracy deterrence implies that "Pirates stand trial".

Hackers must understand that their actions will not go unpunished

« I spoke about it to President Michel, who was in Paris on Monday. (...) We want Seychelles to put in place the appropriate legal treatment so that pirates can understand that their actions will not go unpunished. » he said during a press conference held on Sunday in Port Victoria (Mahé - Seychelles), at the Seychelles Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Minister in charge of piracy, Joel Morgan (1).

Avoid releases for lack of evidence

A way, also very diplomatic, to affirm a certain dissatisfaction with the recent release of 11 pirates handed over to the Seychelles coast guard after the capture of the Alakrana. The Minister thus took note of the “ release for lack of evidence ". But he wants the situation not to happen again in the future. " We have given our agreement so that from now on, according to a guide to good conduct that the Seychellois are going to give us, our riflemen commandos can do their job. And that the Seychellois justice has the elements to judge the pirates. » he thus clarified.

Support from France

« The EU has already allocated 800.000 euros to develop the judicial part of the processing said Hervé Morin. " France supports the Seychellois request to the EU to free up additional resources to develop additional structures for the development of prison structures. Likewise, the Minister affirmed the continuation of French technical assistance with the Seychelles. " A frigate captain participates in the restructuring of the Seychelles army. This cooperation will continue next year, in order to complete the training of the defense forces ". Permanently present in the Seychelles, this soldier thus participates in the Seychelles' anti-piracy committee and also advises the coastguards to perfect their training.

Coastguard in the Seychelles: a body in training

The Seychelles Coastguard has two boats (theAndromache and Topaz). A third is coming. The body has 200 people. But so far, according to a specialist in the matter, their function was " fairly quiet they had more of a general surveillance, fisheries surveillance or rescue function”. With pirates, the gives has changed. And it's about being more offensive ". Hence the need to train this body more specifically for this new task.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(1) to be exact, Minister of the Environment, Natural Resources and Transport.