The Kanak leader of the Field Action Coordination Unit (CCAT) in New Caledonia, Christian Tein, imprisoned in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), declared on Monday July 1, 2024 that he was “a political prisoner”during a visit by two senators, which an AFP correspondent attended.
“I am a political prisoner and the first to be extradited in this way with my comrades”he said, while discussing his conditions of detention. The discussion, which was supervised, could not focus on the ongoing investigation.
During this interview with parliamentarians, Mr. Tein spoke about his conditions of detention in Mulhouse, his activities, while adding: “At some point, we will have to sit down at the table again to resume discussions. The survival of New Caledonia depends on it.”
He explained that he had been put through the long plane journey in handcuffs. “It was difficult. I’m starting to find my bearings.” in Mulhouse, he continued.
Eleven arrests
Mr Tein was charged with complicity in attempted murder and criminal association with a view to preparing a crime, following more than a month of violence against an electoral reform accused by the separatists of marginalising the indigenous Kanak population.
He has always denied calling for violence.
Since the start of the unrest in New Caledonia linked to the constitutional reform on the thawing of the electoral body criticised by the Kanak independence movement, 1,520 people have been arrested, according to the latest situation report from the State services in the archipelago, published on Friday.
Eleven pro-independence activists were arrested on June 19. Nine of them were placed in pre-trial detention, including seven in various prisons across France.
The violence, the most serious to have occurred in the archipelago since the 1980s, left nine dead, according to the latest figures from the authorities, and caused considerable material damage (fires, destruction, looting, etc.).
On Saturday, nearly 200 activists from the Kanak Movement in France (MKF) gathered in Mulhouse in support of Mr. Tein and other independence activists imprisoned in mainland France.
