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Court in Seychelles dismisses civil sex attack case brought by Russian travel writer

Victoria, Seychelles | February 4, 2020, Tuesday @ 12:40 in National » GENERAL | By: Daniel Laurence Edited by: Betymie Bonnelame | Views: 6306
Court in Seychelles dismisses civil sex attack case brought by Russian travel writer

Palais de Justice building which houses the Supreme Court. (Seychelles News Agency)

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(Seychelles News Agency) - A top court in Seychelles has dismissed the civil case levied against a Mauritian man who was charged with sexual abuse for an alleged attack against a Russian travel writer at a resort two years ago.

Chief Justice Mathilda Twomey, who was presiding over the case at the Supreme Court on Monday, said that the plaintiff lacked credibility and consistency in the way she presented her evidence.

“The discrepancies in her evidence in the two trials and the lack of credibility of the evidence of her two witnesses who only heard of the events through her, all add up to the Court’s belief that the plaintiff has made all this up to make some money,” said Twomey.

The defence lawyer, Basil Hoareau, told SNA that "just like in the criminal case against my client, I felt that there were too many grey areas in the evidence presented to the court by the complainant."

Hoareau said that after cross-questioning the Russian traveller he knew that her evidence was weak and did not add up.

"She kept on changing her stories. Interestingly we presented strong evidence before the court to prove that she is making things up, thus, proving the innocence of my client," he said.

The Russian travel writer, who requested for her name to be withheld because of the nature of the allegations, filed the civil case in 2017 before the Seychelles Supreme Court after not being satisfied with the way her criminal case was going. 

The Russian traveller accused the Mauritian man working at Six Senses Zil Pasyon on Felicite Island of rape in an email to media houses in Seychelles, a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean.  

In February last year, the Seychelles' top court dismissed the criminal case on the notion that there was no case to answer.  

Hoareau told SNA it was clear that the court would find grey areas in her evidence.

"For example, she said that she was prescribed pills over the phone by a doctor to deal with her trauma, but the court found out that the pills she was mentioning are not possible for a doctor to prescribe it over the phone," he added.

"The court even examined a letter the Russian woman sent to the lawyer of Zil Pasyon, asking for 1 million euros as a deal to close the case, leaving the court to question her motive to finding real justice," said Hoareau.

As for the dismissal of the civil case, the Russian woman expressed her disappointment on the outcome of the ruling that the court has given to SNA via Facebook.

"The idea to dismissed the civil case too is outrageous and denying me justice. I was raped and I am going to appeal the decision even if I have to seek recourse from the International Court of Justice," she said.

"I feel really tired of all this circus. Truth is mine - no one was in that evil villa to help and to see what really happened. No one saw what I went through," the Russian writer said.

In a statement sent to SNA via email, the Six Senses hotel said that it "has been committed to a fair, impartial legal process in this matter and is pleased to have all charges dismissed in the civil case."

"The safety of our guests and staff is our top priority, and we continually review our policies to help maintain the highest standards of security at all times," the hotel added.

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Tags: Russian travel writer, Supreme Court, Six Senses Zil Pasyon, International Court of Justice

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