Court denies ‘privilege’ of remission to drug dealers

Three prisoners serving long sentences for serious drug dealing crimes in Seychelles have gone to court claiming their constitutional rights were violated because they weren’t eligible for remission. They claimed that legislation in terms of which remission cannot be considered for prisoners who committed such crimes, discriminated against them. As Carmel Rickard explains in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, the three were originally convicted of offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act, for importing illegal drugs and for human trafficking, this after they used someone as a ‘drug guarantee’. But in denying their application, the Constitutional Court has ruled that remission was a privilege, not a right, and that differentiation between classes of offenders was constitutionally valid when it served a legitimate and proportionate legislation aim.