Judge files complaint against Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly |13 December 2011

A case against Mr Volcère opened yesterday at the Supreme Court before judge Duncan Gaswaga, in which Mrs Twomey claims an article published in the newspaper on December 9 was capable of prejudicing her as a judge of the Court of Appeal in favour of the Electoral Commissioner or against the Popular Democratic Movement.

The article said given Mrs Twomey’s brother’s current and previous positions in government and her appointment with the benefits of a foreign judge, she would find it difficult not to overrule the decision of the Constitutional Court.

The PDM was seeking – and got – a reversal of the ruling of the Constitutional Court in which Chief Justice Fredrick Egonda-Ntende and Mr Gaswaga had ruled the party did not deserve a seat in the National Assembly following the October 1 election in which the PDM got 7.4% of all votes cast, including spoilt votes or 11.89% of all valid votes cast.

A party qualifies for a seat for every 10% of votes it gets.
Writing an article capable of causing prejudice amounts to a misdemeanour and attracts a three-month jail term for person/s found guilty.

Attorney general Rony Govinden said the case should be heard urgently since Mrs Twomey is due to leave the country soon, but Mr Volcère’s lawyers claimed he was served with the police dockets with the supposed evidence only 10 minutes before the case started.

Judge Gaswaga ruled that Mr Volcère’s lawyers need to study the evidence and advise their client how to plead.

He said he could not fix a hearing date for the case as no plea had been entered, and said the parties should return to court tomorrow for Mr Volcère to enter a plea for the case to continue.

Mr Volcère is being represented by lawyers Anthony Derjacques, Joel Camille and Alexia Amesbury.