These are the words shared by the leaders forming the Entente de l’Espoir. The three videos of police torture have been in the news since they were posted on social networks on Saturday evening and have traumatized the whole country. Even if the images are blurred, one can see the barbaric acts of some police officers on handcuffed men, which were humiliated and tortured with electric truncheons, on and in their private parts!
There have been many reactions and positions taken since these atrocities were broadcasted on social networks. On this 31st May, the leaders of the Entente de l’Espoir are coming forward with a solution: the establishment of a Commission of Enquiry which will be chaired by a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Mauritius to shed light on these cases.
If the Leader of the Opposition, Xavier Luc Duval wishes that “Justice regains its Letter of Nobility”, Paul Bérenger, Leader of the MMM, has imposed “There is no question of the police investigating the police”. Nando Bodha, Leader of the RM, asked the following questions: “Was the Commissioner of Police aware of this? Did he inform the PM?” Roshi Badhain, Reform Party Leader, concluded: “This is shocking but not a first. The police will have to take their share of responsibility. We need to get to the bottom of this and know about similar cases. As a lawyer, my observation is that 95% of these larceny cases in Court come from confessions of suspects and are based on these confessions. How are these investigations done? Only on these confessions? What is the scientific evidence? Will this Commission of Enquiry establish what the situation is in the country?”
For info, the Bar Council’s solution was a Commission of Enquiry, chaired by a former Commonwealth Judge, but this would have taken a very long time!
