New judge sworn in |11 January 2006

He took his oaths of allegiance and of office before Vice-President Joseph Belmont at State House, in a ceremony attended by Chief Justice Vivekanand Alleear, Attorney General Anthony Fernando and the chairman of the Constitutional Appointment Authority (CAA), France Bonte.

Also present were a number of other Supreme Court judges, and Justice Gaswaga’s wife, Elizabeth, a lawyer with the Ugandan Parliament who flew in from East Africa to attend the ceremony.

Mr Gaswaga was appointed judge by the President of the Republic, James A. Michel, upon recommendation of the CAA.

Born in Uganda in 1970, Justice Gaswaga holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Dar Es Salaam University and a string of certificates and diplomas in law from other universities in Uganda, Denmark and South Africa.

Before being appointed as a magistrate in 1999 in Uganda, Mr Gaswaga was in private practice as an advocate.

He later became chief magistrate and deputy registrar of the High Court at Bushenyi, Uganda.

After the revival of the East African Community, he was elected as the first general secretary of the East African Magistrates and Judges Association for Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan judges.

He also served as a lecturer of the Bar Course in Uganda until November 2002 when he was appointed to join the judiciary of Seychelles as a magistrate.

He was appointed senior magistrate in 2005.
In 2003, he successfully negotiated for the admission of Seychelles in the African Judicial Network (AJN) in Bamako, Mali. He chairs the Seychelles chapter of AJN.

Talking to the media after the swearing in ceremony, Justice Gaswaga said he expects to deal with all sorts of cases as well as appeals from the magistrates’ courts.

He described his appointment as a challenge which he said he is prepared to take on, and promised to make a worthwhile contribution to the administration of justice in Seychelles.

Asked about his reputation as a harsh magistrate, Justice Gaswaga said he attributes it to “the fact that my sentences are so stiff and I am strict in court.”

He said he simply looks at the needs of society and delivers according to the law, saying that in a number of cases he delivered judgements that people did not quite expect.

He gave examples of a number of “young men who kept appearing in court every other day whom I had to finally deal with,” saying he jailed them for five or more years for crimes such as robbery.

He nevertheless said he could not comment on previous judgements by his colleagues on the same offenders whom he said he “finally dealt with.”