1987: Eshan Nayeck, the last executed in Mauritius

On this date in 1987, Eshan Nayeck was hanged in Port Louis — capital of the Indian Ocean island nation Mauritius, a former Dutch, French, and British colony near Reunion Island.

It was just the second execution (French link) since Mauritius attained its independence in 1968, and it remains to this day the last.*

Nayeck sensationally stabbed to death a man named Abdool Rashid Atchia in Port Louis’s Central Market in 1983.


Scene of the crime: Central Market in Port Louis, circa 2006. (cc) image from erwinkarim.

* Mauritius abolished the death penalty in 1995, but its current Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam has publicly mooted (pdf) restoring capital punishment “for crimes such as drug trafficking.”

On this day..