SPDF refiles petition against the TRNUC |12 August 2020

The Seychelles People’s Defence Forces has refiled its petition against the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission as ordered by Supreme Judge Gustave Dodin on July 31.

This change remedies the misnomer wherein the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces’ (SPDF) initially filed the petition as SPDF versus the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC), rather than Attorney General versus TRNUC.

Learned counsel representing TRNUC, Karen Domingue, had brought this matter as one of her objections by arguing that the plaintiff, SPDF, should have filed the suit under the name of its supervisory legal body, the Attorney General.

To note, the defence forces is represented by Stefan Knights, a state counsel in the office of the Attorney General.

“The petition was not brought to the court in the name of the Attorney General as it should have. Whenever a government entity sues another party, it is customary to use the caption Attorney General versus something or other,” Ms Domingue told the media in a previous interview.

SPDF brought the case against the TRNUC to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the commission is overstepping its mandate by looking into the case of Alberto Antat and Roberto Payet, two SPDF privates who disappeared on Assomption island on October 8, 2018.

Elsie Pointe