After his indictment in Nouméa, Christian Tein, the leader of the independence movement suspected by the authorities of having orchestrated the riots in New Caledonia, will be placed in pre-trial detention in mainland France, his lawyer said this Saturday, June 22. This decision was taken by a judge of freedoms and detention (JLD), called upon to rule on the fate of Christian Tein, considered to be the leader of the Field Action Coordination Cell (CCAT), and ten others people, arrested Wednesday at the same time as him.
Prosecutor Yves Dupas confirmed to AFP “assignments in mainland France”, without further details following these closed-door appearances before the JLD. The charges were not specified. The investigation targets in particular acts of criminal association, armed thefts by an organized gang, complicity by instigation of murders or attempted murders of persons holding public authority.
Christian Tein must be incarcerated in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) according to his counsel, Me Pierre Ortent, who expressed his “stupor”. “No one had prior information that the destination would be the metropolis. These are perfectly exceptional procedures in relation to the territory,” he insisted.
“Perfectly shocking and trying decision”
Another accused, Brenda Wanabo, in charge of communications for the CCAT, must be placed in detention in Dijon, according to her lawyer, Me Thomas Gruet, who said he was “extremely shocked and stunned”. 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. “All the errors in the management of the crisis were made on the part of the judicial institution”, which “responded to purely political considerations”, according to him.
As for Frédérique Muliava, chief of staff to the President of the Congress of New Caledonia Roch Wamytan, she must be incarcerated in Riom, near Clermont-Ferrand, according to her lawyer, Me Christelle Affoué, who denounces “a perfectly shocking and trying 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 agitates the French territory of the South Pacific, the most serious since that of the 1980s. Fueled by the vote of a constitutional bill aimed at expanding the Caledonian electoral body for the provincial election scheduled for the end of 2024, these riots left nine dead, including two gendarmes, hundreds of injured and considerable damage, with an estimated cost of 1.5 billion euros, according to the latest report.