A case related to a fake biometric ID card was reported last¹ December. It was big news because if the card issued was indeed biometric & similar to the ones issued by the MNIC, then it would be extremely difficult for someone to deduce it’s fake without a card reader to authenticate a biometric reading. There were arrests but no further information came through media regarding the police investigation that followed; until today.

Lexpress.mu² reports that the accused, an officer of the Mauritius National Identity Card centre, is in turn accusing the police of obtaining « forced confession » from him. This was revealed by his attorney on the 14^th of February 2018 at the Intermediate Court of Mauritius. However, the representative of the Deputy of Public Prosecutions rejected the allegations and maintained in court that the police have conducted their investigation in « total » transparency.

I have a hard time to believe in the word transparency when it comes from the police because the latter usually juggle with these words. On one hand they’d say they can’t reveal info regarding their investigation because it is crucial to the investigation while at the same time they could maintain that they’re transparent. Sorry pal, you can’t do both at the same time.

The magistrate will deliver the verdict on the 26^th of April.

Erratum

After S. Moonesamy pointed³ out on the Mauritius Internet Users mailing list that the case referred dates March 2009, I realized that it is not the « fake ID case » which was reported in December 2017.