Foreign drug smugglers who plead guilty in Seychelles to get lighter sentences and then appeal will get tougher ones

The Palais de Justice which houses the Court of Appeal. (Judiciary of Seychelles)

The President of the Court of Appeal of Seychelles declared on Monday that one of the decisions taken by the court is that foreigners who plead guilty to importing large quantities of hard drugs into the country, get light sentences and then if they appeal, will have their sentences enhanced.

Justice Anthony Fernando made the announcement in his address for the closing of the Court of Appeal's August session.

"We have determined that foreigners who plead guilty to importing large quantities of hard drugs into the country, who have got away with light sentences in the Supreme Court and think that they can appeal and have their sentences further reduced without any legal or factual basis, are mistaken, for they will have their sentences enhanced by this Court," he said.

This follows the Court's decision to dismiss Shabani Kizamba Shabani's appeal to the 12-year imprisonment the Supreme Court had sentenced him to earlier in March.

The 50-year-old Tanzanian national was arrested on September 26, 2022 upon his arrival in Seychelles on a Qatar Airways flight by police and airport officials. A total of 984.78 grammes of cocaine was found in his possession after he was searched. He had pleaded guilty to the charges and was granted a lesser sentence.  

Fernando explained that this was due to Shabani showing remorse and not wasting the court's time.

Under the Misuse of Drug Act, 2016,  the maximum penalty for importing a controlled Class A drug is a term of life imprisonment and a fine of up to SCR 1 million ($74,200).

In appealing to the lesser sentence, Shabani showed that the remorse was not genuine, prompting the Court to enhance the judgement given by the Supreme Court and sentence him to 18 years in prison.

In another case, the Court dismissed Makavita Dilesh's appeal in its entirety. The 43-year-old Sri Lankan national was found guilty of illegally fishing in the island nation's territorial waters in November 2023.

He was convicted to a fine of $41,000 payable within 60 days and if not, serve a term of 18 months in prison. The Court upheld the decision for Dilesh to serve his 18 months in prison with all equipment and gear used in the illegal fishing expedition to be handed over to the government. The fish products and proceeds taken and sold for a sum of SCR 35,320 were also to be given to the small island state's authorities.

The Court of Appeal will reconvene in December to hear the remaining 13 cases on its dockets for the year. So far, the Court has cleared the 200 cases in the backlog.

Meanwhile, in his conclusion, Fernando expressed the Court's appreciation "to Justice Dr Lilian Tibatemwa for her services to the Seychelles Judiciary and the contribution to our jurisprudence, and bid her farewell as this was her last sitting in our Court of Appeal."

He said that Justice Lilian Tibatemwa was appointed as a non-resident justice of this Court in September 2019 for a period of five years.