Two sureties in the sum of Rs1 million each (=Rs2million!) a recognizance in the sum of Rs50 (FIFTY!) million, keeping 500 metres away from the coastline, having a GPS-enabled phone charged and on at all times or another tracking tool (almost like an electronic bracelet), giving an address where he is reachable at any time and reporting to the police station twice a day, every day, a curfew between 8 pm and 5 am, a prohibition to make international phone calls... These were the bail conditions imposed on Bruneau Laurette by Senior District Magistrate Jade Ngan Chai King a couple of days ago.  

I don’t know about you but I had never heard of such harsh bail conditions before. This situation sounds almost like a house arrest. In fact, it might even be worse as not only are you tracked down all the time, but you also have to interrupt any activity you are doing twice a day to report to the police station and inform the police of your “daily activities and whereabouts”.

The accusation? Synthetic drugs which, upon examination, turned out to be chia seeds, firearms which were mostly decorative except for one which has not been analysed yet and 42 kilos of Cannabis Resin, which the Forensic Science Laboratory are still checking but which the police, without concerning themselves with any of that, have estimated at Rs200 million!

You will recall that Geanchand Dewdanee, who had been caught with 119,5 kilos of heroin – heroin!– estimated at Rs1.8 billion – billion! – was granted bail for Rs450,000, a recognizance in the sum of Rs3 million and had to report to the police station only once a day. He was not allowed to communicate with another suspect who had already been identified, Homunchul Ramdin. You might be pleased to know, by the way, that Dewdanee is today a free man, going about his own business.

So, going by this and other precedents, no one can accuse the magistrate of having been too lenient or accommodating toward Bruneau Laurette. Nor can one suggest that she is taking a big risk of seeing him abscond and disappear in nature. The conditions of bail are such that some people have suggested that Bruneau Laurette will be living in “an open-sky prison”.

So much so in fact that we might perhaps have expected protests from Bruneau Laurette and his supporters. That didn’t happen. As it happens, while the latter were jubilating, thankful for small mercies, the anti-climax came with the representative of the DPP lodging a “stay of execution” while deciding whether or not to appeal against the magistrate’s ruling!

Their grounds for objecting have all along been the risk to abscond, which the ruling has made next to impossible, tampering with evidence and influencing witnesses. Up until now, we have seen no evidence other than drugs which the suspect is asking for CCTV footage to prove that they were planted and not a whiff of a witness that Laurette might influence has been mentioned in court.

Lost completely in the narrative is the fact that Bruneau Laurette had given his consent for the police to examine all his electronic devices and bank accounts and that, up till now, nothing has transpired: no suspicious transaction, correspondence or names suggesting that he might be part of the supposed drug cartel that he is supposed to be part of if not heading. The magistrate concluded that: “[…] the police can therefore only rely on the drugs, the exhibits, a further analysis of the IT and ICTA reports which might or might not contain crucial information (Magistrate’s underlining)”. But Bruneau Laurette still returns to jail and if there is an appeal, he may remain in custody for another few months to add to over 100 days spent inside already! Before proven guilty!

Is this our idea of justice? Rather absurd, isn’t it?