Seychellois couple wanted in drugs case appears in court after extradition from Kenya

Seychelles' courts building 'Palais de Justice' at Ile du Port, where also sits the Supreme Court. (Seychelles News Agency)  

(Seychelles News Agency) - A Seychellois couple who were wanted by the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA) and brought back to the island nation appeared in the magistrate court on Monday.

Colin and Gina Forte were arrested by the Kenyan authorities on the border between Kenya and Tanzania with fake travel documents on Thursday, September 28^th. They were handed over to officers of the Seychelles National Drug Enforcement Agency and returned on Sunday on a Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi.

The couple has been sought by the Drug Enforcement Agency since May 2015 in connection with a 1.5 kg consignment of heroin which was imported and seized by the agency in October 2014.

In court on Monday, the couple’s lawyer, Alexia Amesbury, said that the prosecution presented no concrete evidence but only a witness statement.

Concerning the allegation that the couple absconded, Amesbury said: “The suspects were never charged and they were not arrested.”

Amesbury added that: “Furthermore I had approached and written to the authority to explain that the suspects had approached me to return to the islands but they could not do so as their passports had expired.”

NDEA had requested the assistance of Interpol in tracing the whereabouts of the two Seychellois citizens.

The Drug Enforcement Agency had requested Interpol to issue a ‘Blue Notice’, which is an international alert used to locate, identify or obtain information on a person of interest in a criminal investigation.

Amesbury said that the prosecution had enough time, three years, since November 2014 to build the case.

Justice Myriam Ngwami has given the prosecution ten days to complete their investigation and the couple will remain in detention during that time.