Death sentences upheld
On 15 October 2014 Egypt’s highest Court of Appeal upheld the death sentences of three Seychellois sailors, Ronny Norman Jean, Yvon John Vinda and Dean Dominic Loze, who were being held in Qena prison for drug trafficking.[1] The three had been sentenced to death on 7 April 2013, and the sentence was confirmed on 3 June 2013.[1][2] The Seychelles government had been asking Egypt to commute the sentences to life imprisonment, and the ruling meant execution orders would now follow.[1]
The three were convicted alongside two others over the same shipment: the Briton Charles Raymond Ferndale, 74, said to own the vessel, and the Pakistani Munawar Saeed Khan, 44.[1][2] The Seychellois crew were named as Jean, 41, Vinda, 38, and Loze, 27.[2] Britain’s Foreign Office said it was extremely concerned and that its consular team in Cairo was in contact with Ferndale.[3][2]
The Marsa Alam seizure
Police had arrested the five on 22 April 2011 aboard a South African-flagged boat near the Red Sea town of Marsa Alam.[1][2] They were accused of attempting to smuggle three tons of hashish in 118 bags, worth almost 3 million pounds, with the drugs believed to have originated in Pakistan.[1][2] A court in Red Sea Province ruled they were an international gang, sentenced all five to death and fined them 85 million Egyptian pounds, while the Pakistani, who had fled, was sentenced in his absence.[3][1]