The Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) |28 November 2020

Derick Dias (Photo: Anel Robert)

One complainant appears in last session for the month

The Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission yesterday heard one complainant and two witnesses in its last session for November.

After two closed sessions in the morning, the commission heard CASE 0145 - Rita Baillon, a complainant who was represented by her son Derick Dias, in relation to unlawful detentions and harassments at the hands of the state, endured by her eldest son, Royce Dias, who had since passed away.

In setting out his mother’s complaint, Derick said that the nightmare for his brother started on 2am on the day of the coup d’etat on June 5, 1977, when he (Derick) was going home from a dance at the Pagoda Bar, met his elder brother, Royce, who told him that he had been threatened with a revolver by a certain Ogilvy De Letourdie, who was part of the coup.

Derick further told the commission that after the threatening incident, his brother was constantly harassed by the state which led to his first arrest in 1979 where he was detained for nine months at the Union Vale Prison Camp, along with other detainees such as Paul Chow and Gerard Houarau, among others. He claimed that those detained along with his brother were arrested on the same ground of being a threat to the state.

He explained that on each occasion that his mother (Rita Baillon) visited his brother in prison, she was intimidated and harassed by the army and would most of the time have all of her goodies for her son be tampered with very badly.

Derick stated that after Royce was released, he was harassed and constantly arrested and detained at the Central Police Station without any charges.

He claimed his brother was never told the reasons for his arrests.

He further claimed that the police were constantly searching the family house at Bel Air, on claims they were looking for guns, army uniforms and opposition leaflets, after which they would take his brother away to be detained.

Derick said he was himself arrested in 1984 by the police and the army, along with a group of people, for supposedly taking part in an anti-government demonstration in Victoria and detained at the Police Station.

He claimed that he was only a bystander at the gathering and that no anti-government demonstration ever took place. He added that he was later joined in jail that day by his brother who the police had gone to the Beau Vallon Regatta to arrest him along with some other people on the ground that they were also involved in organising the demonstration he (Derick) claimed never took place.

He said after they were released the following day, they were tried for six months.

He alleged that the then Police Commissioner, Andre Kilindo, once planted drugs (hashish) in Royce’s car after which he was detained at the Cascade Police Station. He said Royce was released on a R200,000 bail and had his passport confiscated. He added that following further trails, Royce received a seven and a half year prison sentence but had his sentence commuted to five and a half years following an appeal.

Derick said that following Royce’s release from the Long Island Prison, Royce immigrated to the United Kingdom in 1986 with the help of a human rights organisation but he returned to Seychelles in 1992.

He explained that his brother was still harassed by the state upon his return from UK, but to a lesser degree.

He said his brother sadly passed away in 1995 and from information he had from a friend, the things his brother had consumed in prison could have contributed to the cause of his death.

He claimed that they could have been poisoning him in small doses while in there. He said Royce was targeted because he spoke openly against the government.

He claimed that his brother was not a drug dealer either.

The chairperson of the commission, Gabrielle Mclntyre, later explained to Derick that a witness had in his evidence revealed that it was the police who planted drugs on his brother on the orders of the then Minister for Defense, Ogilvy Berlouis, and that they got hold of the drugs from the police station as they used to keep drugs there in a drawer to maliciously plant on people.

Patrick Joubert