Prison Inquiry Enters Fourth Day as Seven Witnesses Describe Shootings, Nakedness, and Systematic Humiliation
Victoria, Seychelles – Seven witnesses testified in open proceedings yesterday during the fourth session of the Commission of Inquiry into the Montagne Posee prison incident of December 5, 2024, and what they described adds further weight to a body of testimony that is becoming impossible to dismiss as exaggeration or coincidence.
Convict Daniel Vidot recounted being moved from his cell at around 2am on December 6 and immediately subjected to humiliation and beatings by army personnel. He questioned why he had been restrained with both a tie wrap and handcuffs simultaneously – and said the questioning itself triggered the assault. He and every other inmate present were beaten without cause, ordered to strip naked, and denied breakfast the following morning.
Elvyn Bonne, then on remand, traced the chain of events back to the afternoon of December 5, when inmates in the Karanbol section learned that their leader, Stephen Mondon, had been placed in a dry cell. After requesting information from guards, they were told to wait for monthly provisions that never came. Security forces stormed the prison instead. Bonne suffered multiple injuries, was taken to the gate, waited a long time before receiving medical attention, and was among those not ordered to strip – a distinction that itself suggests the humiliation was targeted and deliberate.
Julius Quatre described hearing gunshots and tear gas before a fire broke out at his section entrance, forcing him to seek refuge in the foreign inmates section until 11pm. He testified that security forces moved from section to section beating inmates indiscriminately. Foreign inmates, he said, were spared. Seychellois were not. He was shot and beaten. He witnessed Francis Ernesta covered in blood and held by officers. He later discovered a severe leg wound from gunfire and spent four weeks in hospital after surgery to remove bullets. He had recorded video footage on his phone and sent it via WhatsApp – the device was subsequently confiscated.
Three foreign inmates – Kenyan national Godson Nzewi, and Nigerians Peter Nwachukwu and Efeanyi Hozur – gave testimonies that corroborate the Seychellois accounts in every material respect. Nzewi said it took security forces seven hours to force entry, after which massive gunfire followed. Inmates were restrained with tie wraps, humiliated, and stripped naked in front of female officers. He required a wheelchair afterward and was threatened with solitary confinement. Kizamba was shot in both legs and hospitalised for over four months with multiple surgeries. Hozur was shot at close range in the pelvic area and leg, beaten while being carried outside, and required multiple surgeries across two hospitals to remove bullets.
Taken together, across four sessions now, the commission has heard from more than a dozen witnesses. Not one has confirmed the kidnapping of guards cited as the original justification. Not one has described seeing weapons in inmate hands. Every single witness – Seychellois and foreign, convicted and on remand – has described the same sequence: an operation that went far beyond any legitimate security response and left people shot, hospitalised, humiliated, and stripped.
The family of Francis Ernesta, who later died, is still waiting.
