Seychelles court keeps 20-year terms for 47 kg cannabis pair
Jean Francois Adrienne and Terence Robin Servina, caught with about 47 kg of cannabis resin in April 2014 and sentenced to life in 2015, had their terms cut to 20 years on review. On 21 August 2020 the Court of Appeal dismissed their challenge and kept the 20-year sentences.
Jean Francois Adrienne and Terence Robin Servina were found guilty of
trafficking and conspiracy to traffic 47,345.1 grams of cannabis resin in
Supreme Court case CR 20/2014, and both were sentenced to life imprisonment on
each count on 27 July 2015.[1]The National Drugs Enforcement Agency had
found the two men, a farmer and carpenter and a driver, in possession of 47
kilos of cannabis on 9 April 2014, and the life sentences shocked the nation.[2]Their appeals against conviction and sentence were dismissed on 11 August
2017.[1]
The men then applied under the transitional review provision of the Misuse of
Drugs Act 2016, and the Sentence Review Tribunal cut the outstanding portion
of their sentences to 20 years’ imprisonment.[1]The Supreme Court had
sentenced two men to life for trafficking 47,435 grammes of cannabis, a class
B drug, and that sentence was unanimously upheld by the Court of Appeal before
being used as the precedent for later life sentences.[3]On 21 August 2020
the Court of Appeal dismissed both men’s appeals and maintained the 20-year
sentences, ending the case.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The 2020 judgment records 47,345.1 grams of cannabis resin while the Nation article states 47,435 grammes, and the reason for the difference was not reported.
The place where the two men were found with the cannabis, beyond Seychelles, is not specified in the sources opened, so no coordinates are given.
The date of the Review Tribunal decision that cut the life terms to 20 years is not stated in the sources opened.
Seychelles’ Supreme Court sentenced Varis Preungprasob, 24, and Rutcha Pinitkarn, 21, to five years’ imprisonment each for importing cannabis after customs and police intercepted them on an Air Seychelles flight on 2 September 2025. Officers seized about 15.9 kg from each traveller.
The Supreme Court sentenced Nico Hertel, 32, to six years’ imprisonment on 11 September 2026 for importing cannabis found on 14 March 2025 hidden in car seats inside a container at the port. Hertel, who ran an auto business in Anse Etoile, changed his plea to guilty after first denying the charge.
The Anti-Narcotics Bureau seized about 30 kg of suspected herbal cannabis, with 96 g of heroin, at a warehouse in the Pointe Larue district of Mahé on 26 December 2020. No one was arrested; the Bureau opened an investigation into the find.
Seychelles police arrested Terry Marie at Victoria's Inter Island Quay on 2 September 2000 with 369 grams of cannabis in a bag and 32 grams hidden in his underwear. Sentenced to the mandatory minimum of eight years for trafficking in 2004, he lost his appeal in October 2006.