Lawyer for Mauritian man accused in sexual attack seeks to have case dismissed
Seychelles court's building 'Palais de Justice' at Ile du Port, where also sits the Supreme Court. (Seychelles News Agency)
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(Seychelles News Agency) - The lawyer for a man from Mauritius charged with sexual abuse for an alleged attack against a Russian travel writer last year says he will seek to have the case dismissed.
The Mauritian man, aged 37, appeared before the Seychelles Supreme Court on Thursday and the defence lawyer, Basil Hoareau, told the court that he will “do a submission of a no case to answer” for lack of evidence.
“If the court agrees that there is ‘a no case to answer’ then the man needs to be acquitted,” he added.
The case was heard by Justice Ronny Govinden.
The Russian travel writer, 39, had accused the Mauritian man who was working at Six Senses Zil Pasyon on Felicite Island of rape in May last year.
She alleged in an email to media houses after the incident that her attacker raped her for 20 minutes and used a knife as a weapon. She had said that her attacker accessed her room through an open balcony door.
The lawyer of Six Senses Zil Pasyon resort, Laura Valabjhi, told SNA that the doctor who did the examination in the case gave evidence which confirmed that there was no sign of aggression on the Russian national.
“The doctor said depending on how much aggression has been used on a person whether a virgin or not there should be some sort of trauma, which in that case was not apparent. Her blood pressure was normal and her pulse was normal,” said Valabjhi.
She added that “if you take everything separately, you can push an argument forward, but the thing is when you take everything together the obvious states itself.”
Valabjhi added further that “the evidence of the police officer who secured the scene showed that there was a glass with white substances inside as the complainant mentioned, but apart from that there was no sign of a fight.”
The Russian travel writer told the court previously that she had to drug her alleged aggressor for her to be able to escape.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor, David Esparon, representing the Attorney-General’s office has on their part closed the case, and will not be calling any witness.
