Compensated by the State and the CP to the tune of Rs 250,000 - Me Alexandre Le Blanc: “Ryan Patrice Ferley is an innocent person who was tortured”

After two years of fighting, Ryan Patrice Ferley obtains compensation for alleged acts of torture and a tarnished reputation during a police arrest. A decision that could set a precedent.

He was seeking compensation after his reputation was damaged following his arrest and the acts of torture he claims to have suffered at the hands of the police on February 12, 2024. After two years, Ryan Patrice Ferley can finally breathe.

On April 10, 2026, before the Intermediate Civil Court, he obtained compensation of Rs 250,000 from the State and the Commissioner of Police (CP). A look back at this “exceptional” case which sets a precedent.

Ryan Patrice Ferley never gave up, determined to regain his honor and denounce the police brutality that he says he suffered, and which marked him for life. This is what motivated him to turn to the intermediate civil court to claim damages of Rs 2 million from the State and the Police Commissioner (CP) for “gross negligence”, following the damage suffered.

His lawyers, Mes Alexandre Le Blanc and Mahendranath Soobhug (attorney), whom we met at their office in Port-Louis, give the account of what their client experienced.

Me Alexandre Le Blanc confides that Ryan Patrice Ferley was the victim of very serious violence at the hands of the police. In addition, his photo was published throughout the press following his arrest in connection with an alleged rape case. He was also deprived of his liberty.

This story is “incredible”, believes the lawyer. “My client was wrongly arrested and beaten by the police. In this case, other people were arrested. The surprise came during the identification parade, when the victim recognized the other people, but, upon seeing my client, said: 'Sa misie pa'nn fer mwa nanye. Mo pa mem kone li’. Then, a police officer, whom we must greet, came to my client and said to him: ‘Sorry guy, pou tou seki nou’nn fer. Pa twa sa, ale lakaz’. He was released without any charges being brought against him,” he relates.

To better understand the facts, Me Alexandre Le Blanc returns to this February 12, 2024. Ryan Patrice Ferley was getting off a bus at the Flic-en-Flac terminal for a professional meeting, when he was intercepted by three individuals in civilian clothes, without explanation. He was then brutally restrained and taken by force to a public toilet, where he suffered repeated blows, slaps and insistent interrogations to which he claimed he could not respond.

Under the blows, he fainted. When he regained consciousness, he found himself in a wood, where he was again tortured and violently beaten. He had also been threatened with a revolver and had received taser blows, before losing consciousness a second time.

When he woke up, he found that he was in a police station. After being authorized