Indian Ocean. Suspicious death of a French woman in the Seychelles: her family files a complaint

The family of a French woman found dead in June in a police custody cell on the island of Praslin in the Seychelles has filed a complaint in France and refutes the theory of suicide put forward by the local police.

Valérie Ramier, 57, had left Essonne in October to take care of her sick mother, who has lived on the archipelago for about thirty years. On June 20, this octogenarian was hospitalized with jaundice. Tensions rose between the medical team and the daughter over the transfer of the mother to another facility on the island of Mahé. Since Valérie Ramier was under the influence of alcohol, the police were called in as backup.

A complaint filed in Poitiers

“While my mother went out to smoke a cigarette, and was ready to go home after calling relatives, a patrol arrived at the hospital and a policewoman started to beat her up,” the victim’s daughter, Juliette Wack, told AFP. She filed a complaint in Poitiers, where she lives.

“My mother kept screaming ‘help’, asking for the beating to stop and for someone to call the embassy,” the 24-year-old continues.

According to testimonies collected by Valérie Ramier’s sister, who filed a complaint with the Milly-la-Forêt police station before going to the scene with her son, the fifty-year-old was then “dragged along the ground, taken by the arms and legs, and thrown into a pick-up truck to be taken to the police station”.

According to the newspaper The Seychelles Independent, the fifty-year-old was found hanging from a “shower pipe, her skirt twisted around her neck”, with the author of the article suggesting that the scene was staged.

The Quai d’Orsay “mobilized”

“My mother tended to drink when she felt overwhelmed or angry. But she never had suicidal thoughts. She was a fighter and didn’t let herself be pushed around,” assures her daughter who was questioned by the investigation section of the Paris gendarmerie on Wednesday.

She is also in contact with the French embassy in the Seychelles, which she said had not been informed of the death. According to a diplomatic source, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy “are mobilized” on the case.

Several requests for international assistance have been made by the French authorities, particularly concerning the autopsy of the body. A French forensic doctor is due to visit the site shortly.