English barristers criticised over Seychelles ‘show trial’
Jonathan Ames Thursday June 09 2022, 12.01am BST, The Times Senior London barristers are embroiled in a row over “a politically motivated prosecution” that has allegedly breached due process in the Seychelles. The family of two defendants who are accused of corruption and weapons charges on the Indian Ocean island have expressed “distress” that one of the prosecution lawyers is a QC from a prominent human rights chambers. Stephen Powles QC, a tenant at Doughty Street, has been instructed by the Seychelles government jointly to lead the prosecution against nine defendants who are associated with or related to France-Albert René, the country’s former president, who died aged 83 in 2019. René had stepped down in 2004, but his party remained in power until 2020, when it lost elections for the first time in 43 years to a party led by Wavel Ramkalawan, the present leader. Powles is joined on the prosecution side by Edmund Vickers QC of Red Lion Chambers and two junior barristers from London