Africa-Press – Mauritius. This week, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) in its courageous legal stand has reprimanded the Office of the Police in court about any abusive usage of the provisional charge (PC), in this case against lawyer Rama Valayden.
« The DPP urges the police to close the enquiry at the earliest.
The DPP strongly recommends the CP not to resort instantly to the lodging of PCs invariably in all cases » summed up Jacques Panglose, chief legal counsel for the lawyer as the case was dismissed in Court.
Lawyer Rama Valayden, as Opposition activist and former journalist Harish Chundunsingh, arrested and bailed out the week before (as we reported here), are both known for their forthright publicly aired views on radios and in various venues about the government’s actions or inactions.
The ability to criticise publicly is part and parcel of a functional democratic state that respects and guarantees freedom of expression and beliefs without unbecoming or slanderous terms.
There are no reasons why that constitutional right should raise hackles on the necks of a few police grandees, and specifically those who take it upon themselves to arrest, charge, then enquire for unending months before sending any file directly to Court or to the DPP for advice.
The image of a police force, in high-profile or politically exposed cases, that is either struggling to find its bearings or perceived to be acting at the beck and call of politicians in power, may even be construed as a downhill slide that should be hemmed in urgently.
The police force has evidently an arsenal of considerable powers to maintain law and order but the greater those powers, the more caution needs to be exercised.
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