The leader of the independence movement suspected by the authorities of having orchestrated the riots in New Caledonia against electoral reform was presented on Saturday to an investigating judge in Noumea, AFP journalists noted.
Christian Tein, head of the Field Action Coordination Unit (CCAT), arrested Wednesday with ten other people, was the first to be presented at the courthouse where two investigating judges are in charge of the case.
He entered the judges’ office wearing a light beige jacket on Saturday afternoon and left barely half an hour later after being served with his indictment. The charges have not yet been communicated.
The ten other people arrested must all be presented on Saturday one by one to the investigating judge, before going before the sentence enforcement judge, who will rule on possible detention.
Saturday morning, the Nouméa prosecutor, Yves Dupas, confirmed to AFP that “the eleven people placed in police custody are being referred today (Saturday) as part of the opening of a judicial investigation”, adding that the “acts are in progress”.
On Wednesday, eleven people were arrested and placed in police custody as part of an investigation targeting “the alleged sponsors of the abuses committed (…) from May 12, 2024” in the archipelago, Mr. Dupas indicated. .
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, he specified.
Mr. Tein himself had contacted the gendarmerie to be brought before the investigators “in order to explain the alleged facts”, according to Yves Dupas.
The identities of those arrested are not all known.
Me Thomas Gruet, present at the Nouméa courthouse, confirmed to AFP that his client Brenda Wanabo, in charge of communications for the CCAT, was among those arrested.
“My client would never have imagined finding herself here. She is extremely shocked, it’s just activism for her,” said the lawyer, stressing that she had “spent her entire first night in police custody handcuffed.” .
Since the first violence on May 13, the CCAT has been suspected by the authorities of being the instigator of the violence. It was described as a “mafia organization” by the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories Gérald Darmanin.
The independence collective has always denied being at the origin of the unrest.
