Arid deplores alleged human rights violation |23 March 2026

Arid deplores alleged human rights violation

The Association for Rights, Information and Democracy has called on the government and the Seychelles Human Rights Commission to intervene in a case where a person who has just been released from prison is allegedly being held in a ‘dry cell’ at Montagne Posée prison on a medical order.

In a press communique issued on Saturday, the Association for Rights, Information and Democracy (Arid) stated that it has received a complaint about a young man who was recently released from prison, has been re-arrested on the grounds that he has a contagious illness and is being detained in prison. 

“Arid is aware that under the Public Health Act, there are specific legal provisions to ensure protection of public health, particularly the prevention of infectious diseases, and that the Public Health Authority may issue an order to forcefully isolate any individual in relation to the protection of Public Health, however, this form of isolation should not be in a prison cell,” stated the communique.

“Given that the person in question has completed his prison term, he should have been placed in a proper health isolation facility like in the case of any other client,” it added.

Arid said it was concerned with several sequence of events;

•          Under whose orders is the man being detained in the prison; medical or prison? 
•          Is it normal procedure to re-arrest someone and then send him to a ‘dry-cell’ which is a place reserved for violent offenders? 
•          If the detention is medical, is the person receiving any treatment while in the dry cell? 
•          If as mentioned, the person’s condition is contagious, why were members of his immediate family and other close contacts not tested to see if they had been infected?
•          Are the people who are in contact with him in prison now going to be tested too?
•          Given that the person is now detained for more than 12 days, under which law medical or otherwise is this person being detained?

“We are seeing that a person who has been released from prison is not just arrested but sent directly to prison without being sent in front of a judge, directly infringing article 18(5) of our constitution. Arid is calling on all concerned authorities to stop this form of violation,” concluded the communique.