(Seychelles News Agency) - Magistrate Laura Pillay has ruled that two Seychellois nationals apprehended in Kenya on Saturday shall remain in custody for a further seven days pending investigations.

The suspects were brought before the magistrates’ court in Victoria for the second time on Tuesday.

Both suspects, whom the magistrate stated were part of an international organised criminal group, have exercised their rights to not give any statements. The case itself has been ongoing for the past two years, and since then others have been charged and tried.

Pillay stated in her ruling that while the application brought before the court by the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA) was lacking, the offence was too serious to be dismissed merely on the basis that the application is lacking.

In a press communiqué during the weekend, NDEA had stated that an application will be made to have the two suspects remanded on charges of conspiracy to import a controlled drug, the importation of a controlled drug and drug trafficking.

“As much as I deplore the lack of time and effort that has been put in the application, I take note that there were previous applications calling for the suspects to surrender themselves,” said Pillay in her ruling.

She added that, “They could not have been unaware of the efforts of the agency to locate them. The fact that they did not make themselves available for inquiries goes to show that should they be released it is highly likely that they would abscond.” 

The two Seychellois, which ‘The Star’ of Kenya identified as Nelson Domingue and Nedy Micock, were deported to the 115-island archipelago in the western Indian Ocean onboard a Kenya Airways flight from the the capital, Nairobi, on February 12.

NDEA has been seeking the two Seychellois citizens since May 2015 and had issued blue notices issued by Interpol for their arrest.