(Nouméa) Several Caledonian independence activists, including Christian Tein, the leader of the movement suspected by the French authorities of having orchestrated the recent uprising against electoral reform, will be placed in pre-trial detention in mainland France (European territory of France), have announced Saturday their lawyers who said they were “stunned.”
These decisions were taken by a judge of freedoms and detention (JLD), called to rule on the fate of the 11 people arrested on Wednesday, including Mr. Tein, considered the leader of the Field Action Coordination Unit ( CCAT).
Prosecutor Yves Dupas confirmed to AFP “assignments in mainland France”, without further details following these closed-door appearances before the JLD in Nouméa, capital of the French archipelago in the South Pacific.
The charges were not specified. The investigation targets in particular acts of criminal conspiracy, theft with weapons by an organized gang, complicity by instigation of murders or attempted murders of persons holding public authority.
Mr. Tein must be imprisoned in Mulhouse (eastern France) according to his lawyer, Mr. Pierre Ortent, who expressed his “stupor”.
Another suspect, Brenda Wanabo, in charge of communications at CCAT, is to be placed in detention in Dijon (central-east), according to her lawyer, Me Thomas Gruet, who said he was “extremely shocked”.
Mother of three children, the youngest of whom is 4 years old, this activist “who has never called for violence”, will be separated from her family and is “devastated”, he stressed.
As for Frédérique Muliava, chief of staff to the President of the Congress of New Caledonia Roch Wamytan, she must be incarcerated in Riom (center), according to her lawyer, Me Christelle Affoué, who denounces “a completely shocking decision”.
“If it was a question of making them martyrs to the independence cause, we wouldn’t do it any other way,” commented Me Stéphane Bonomo, lawyer for another defendant, Gilles Joredie.
These decisions come six weeks after the start of the violence which is shaking French territory, the most serious since that of the 1980s.
Fueled by the vote on a constitutional bill aimed at expanding the Caledonian electorate for the provincial election scheduled for the end of 2024, these riots left nine dead, including two gendarmes, hundreds of injured and considerable damage, costing estimated at 1.5 billion euros, according to the latest report.
The bill that sparked the controversy was “suspended” on June 12 by French President Emmanuel Macron, following the dissolution of the National Assembly.