Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Mauritius.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Mauritius. Some of these links may lead to websites that
present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt
has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Mauritius U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/mauritius/
[accessed 29 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The constitution
and law prohibit such practices, but there continued to be allegations of
police abuse, through either official complaints or allegations made on the
radio or in the press. For example, in September, four boys accused two
prison guards at the Beau Bassin Correctional Youth
Center of physical assault. The two prison guards were only reprimanded. Impunity was a
significant problem in the security forces. While disciplinary actions
against offending officers take place, dismissal or prosecutions are rare. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS While conditions
did not always meet international standards, there were no significant
reports regarding prison or detention center conditions that raised human
rights concerns. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Pretrial Detention:
According to data from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the
NHRC, and the Bureau of Prisons, due to a backlogged court system and
detainees’ inability to post bail, a significant percentage of the prison
population remained in pretrial detention. In October, 53 percent of
detainees were pretrial detainees, according to the NGO World Prison Brief.
Lawyers believed that approximately 40 percent of pretrial detainees
typically remained in custody for at least three years before going to trial.
Judges routinely credited time served in custody against sentences ultimately
imposed. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/MUS/CO/3
(2011) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/mauritius2011.html [accessed 15
Aug 2013] Complaints,
investigations and prosecutions 15. The Committee
is concerned that only few complaints for torture, excessive use of force or
ill-treatment by law enforcement or prison officers or cases of death
occurred in police custody are investigated and prosecuted and do not usually
lead to compensation (arts. 12, 13 and 14). The State party
should systematically conduct impartial, thorough and effective inquiries
into all allegations of violence committed by the police or prison officers,
and prosecute and punish the perpetrators in proportion to the seriousness of
their acts. It should also ensure that victims or their families obtain
redress and fair and adequate compensation, including means for as full
rehabilitation as possible. The State party should inform the Committee of
the outcome of current proceedings and on the results of the appeal lodged by
the Director of Public Prosecutions against the case dismissing four police
officers accused. Mauritius must get
to grips with torture if it wishes to restore confidence Patrick Corrigan,
Slugger O'Toole, 20 July 2012 [accessed 29 Jan
2014] The Mauritian
jury’s ‘not guilty’ verdict seems to show that they believed Avinash Treebhoowoon’s
allegation that a confession statement produced three days after Michaela McAreavey’s murder was a police concoction, only signed
by him after days of torture. Treebhoowoon made his first official complaint of
ill-treatment at a court appearance days after the murder, in January last
year. In short, he alleged he was
subject to numerous beatings, whipped on the soles of his feet with a pipe,
hit on the head, stripped naked and held down on a table while police tried
to suffocate him with a towel and held his head in a bucket of water. On the
third day he signed the statement confessing to the murder. Mauritius: Amnesty
International calls for independent investigation of torture complaints Amnesty
International, AI Index AFR 39/001/2001 - News Service Nr.
74, 25 April 2001 www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR39/001/2001/en/588723c4-d952-11dd-a057-592cb671dd8b/afr390012001en.html [accessed 29 Jan
2014] www.afrol.com/News2001/mas001_illtreatment.htm [accessed 28 August
2016] "The repeated
accusations brought against the Mauritian authorities by individuals who
claim that their right to be free from torture and ill-treatment and their
right to be given a fair trial have been violated put a question mark behind
the government’s commitment to the protection of human rights." On 23 April 2001,
members of the Curepipe Criminal Investigation Department
(CID) in Mauritius arrested Bernard Maigrot on
suspicion of killing 32-year old Vanessa Lagesse on
the night of 9 to 10 March this year. He was held incommunicado for several
hours after his arrest, without access to any legal assistance or his family.
According to police sources, Bernard Maigrot
confessed to the murder during interrogation. In a court hearing on 24 April,
Bernard Maigrot withdrew the confession, claiming
it had been obtained under torture and before he was able to have any contact
with his lawyers. A previous suspect in the case, who was released from
police detention on 13 April, has also accused the CID of ill-treatment. Ill-treatment of
criminal suspects during interrogation has been reported in a number of cases
in Mauritius in recent months, and has for many years been of concern to
local and international human rights monitors. Although the police or courts
have in the past ordered inquiries into such allegations, these have either
been inconclusive or their results have not been made public. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 1 Civil
Liberties: 2 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/mauritius [accessed 5 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] The generally
independent judiciary, headed by the Supreme Court, administers a legal system
that is an amalgam of French and British traditions. Civil rights are for the
most part well respected, although individual cases of police brutality have
been reported. There are no known political prisoners or reports of political
or extrajudicial killings. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61582.htm [accessed 5 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61582.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, there continued to be reports of police
abuses. In September the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) found three
policemen guilty of brutality after they assaulted a suspect after accusing
him of being a drug addict. At year's end the Disciplined Forces Service
Commission was determining disciplinary action against the police officers.
The NHRC received 131 complaints of police abuse, of which 33 were alleged
cases of police brutality and 10 related to verbal abuse by officers. The
police department Complaints Investigation Bureau (CIB) received 383
complaints, of which 128 were allegations of police brutality or abuse All
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ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Mauritius", http://gvnet.com/torture/Mauritius.htm, [accessed
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