Section 5: Endangering safe navigation

5. Endangering safe navigation (1) Subject to subsection (7), any person who— (a) destroys or damages any property to which this subsection applies; or (b) interferes with the operation of any such property, shall, where the destruction, damage or interference is likely to endanger the safe navigation of a ship, commit an offence. (2) Subsection (1) applies to any property used for the provision of maritime navigation facilities, including any land, building, ship, apparatus or equipment so used, whether it is on board a ship or elsewhere. (3) (a) Subject to subsection (7), any person who intentionally communicates information which he knows to be false in a material particular, where the communication of the information endangers the safe navigation of a ship, shall commit an offence. (b) It shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under paragraph (a) to prove that, when he communicated the information, he was lawfully employed to perform duties which consisted of, or included, the communication of information and that he communicated the information in good faith in performance of those duties. (4) A person who, in order to compel any other person to do or abstain from doing any act, threatens that he or some other person will do, in relation to a ship, an act which is an offence by virtue of section 4 (2) (a), (b) or (c), where the making of that threat is likely to endanger the safe navigation of the ship, shall commit an offence. (5) Subject to subsection (7), a person who, in order to compel any other person to do or abstain from doing any act, threatens that he or some other person will do an act which is an offence by virtue of subsection (1), where the making of that threat is likely to endanger the safe navigation of a ship, shall commit an offence. (6) Except as provided by subsection (7), subsections (1), (3), (4) and (5) shall apply whether any act referred to in those subsections is committed in Mauritius or elsewhere and whatever be the nationality of the person committing the act. (7) For the purposes of subsections (1), (3) and (5), any danger, or likelihood of danger, to the safe navigation of a warship or any other ship used as a naval auxiliary or in customs or police service, shall be disregarded unless— (a) the person committing the act is a Mauritius citizen; (b) the act is committed in Mauritius; or (c) the ship is used in the service of the Mauritius Police Force. (8) It shall be an offence for any person in Mauritius to induce or assist the commission, outside Mauritius, of any act which would but for— (a) section 4 (4), be an offence under that section; or [Issue 4] P8A – 4 (b) subsection (7), be an offence under this section. (9) Any person who commits an offence under this section shall, on conviction, be liable to penal servitude for a term not exceeding 60 years.