SA murder suspect in Mauritius held by 'apartheid-style' law

The detention of a Johannesburg businessman, Peter Wayne Roberts, in connection with the mysterious death of his girlfriend at a Mauritius resort has cast a spotlight on the country's bizarre legal system.

Roberts has appeared five times in the Flacq District Court without being formally charged for the murder of Lee-Ann Palmarozza.

She was found dead in the pool of his luxury villa at the Anahita resort on December 29. He is due to appear again on Thursday.

He has only been "provisionally charged", an element of law described by one of Roberts's lawyers as "unique". In effect, this allows the island's police to hold suspects for long periods without them having been charged formally - similar to the notorious laws for detention without trial under apartheid.

However, a person detained on the island needs to be brought before a court regularly.

Roberts, who spent his 40th birthday - which was also the day of Palmarozza's cremation - behind bars, has been detained for more than seven weeks.

He has hired local and international experts to defend him , including advocate Kenny Oldwage , who was part of Oscar Pistorius's defence team, and Robert Amsterdam, an international human rights lawyer who represented ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Amsterdam said nowhere, including countries such as Russia, Nigeria and Venezuela, had he come across a provisional charge. In 2013, the UK urged Mauritius to scrap the practice.

Jean Claude Bibi, a barrister in Mauritius who is not working for Roberts, said a provisional charge was, in effect, a non-charge and the accused did not need to plead.

"The fundamental problem is that police arrest and detain before inquiry in most cases. Later, the provisional charge is dropped without any explanation or compensation," he said.

During Roberts's last appearance, on February 4, a motion to drop the charge did not proceed because the police investigation was incomplete.