The Supreme Court has given two different verdicts on the appeals made by Siddick Chady and Prakash Maunthrooa in the Boskalis affair.
Both had appealed against their sentence of nine months imprisonment for corruption. They had been found guilty of taking bribe as the Chairman and Director of the Mauritius Ports Authority from the Dutch enterprise, Boskalis, following which Boskalis had been awarded a tender for digging works in the port area.
The Supreme Court quashed the conviction of Prakash Maunthrooa yesterday but maintained the guilty verdict of Siidick Chady. In fact, the latter is now faced with more trouble given that the Appellate Court has increased the sentence from nine months to fifteen months.
According to the judges, Mr Chady took a loan of 25,000 euros from one Mr Gilbert Phillipe. It was agreed that the refund would be effected abroad; and Mr. Philippe had provided his bank account number in Singapore to Chady where the latter told him that he had fulfilled his promise and refunded the said sum. There was indeed a transfer of 25,000 Euros in the bank account of Mr. Philippe by Boskalis. In addition, communications in the form of calls or faxes in 2006 and 2007 from telephone numbers attributed to businesses in which Mr Chady was involved to Boskalis in the Netherlands were found. These communications were also from the persons who worked in the businesses or who were related to the businesses in which Chady was involved.
As such, the Supreme Court endorsed the guilty verdict of the Lower Court against Siddick Chady.
You can read the full verdict over here.
