An insight into piracy prosecutions in the Republic of Seychelles

The article concentrates on the several legal issues that have come up in piracy trials before the Supreme Court in relation to jurisdiction, human rights, joint and secondary party liability, attempts, mens rea, presumption of piracy from those found cruising the high seas with weapons and sentencing. The article also deals with factual issues in relation to determining; the identity, age, nationality of accused and time of attack due to different time zones, placing reliance on GPS, video, photographic and hearsay evidence and use of system evidence from the common pattern followed by a typical piracy action group.