Two independence activists from New Caledonia were placed in pre-trial detention in Nouméa on Tuesday following their arrest last week as part of a vast search, AFP learned from their lawyers.
These two activists, including Joël Tjibaou, one of the sons of the Kanak leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou assassinated in 1989, were arrested last Wednesday with nine other people suspected of having ordered the violence affecting the South Pacific archipelago since mid-May.
Seven of these activists, including Christian Tein, the spokesperson for the Field Action Coordination Unit (CCAT), were transferred to mainland France for incarceration, and two others were placed under judicial supervision. Among the charges included those of complicity in attempted murder, organized gang theft with weapons, organized gang destruction of another person’s property by dangerous means.
Two of these eleven indicted, Joël Tjibaou and Gilles Jorédié, had requested a deferred debate before the judge of freedoms and detention, which took place on Tuesday. At the end of this debate, the judge decided that their pre-trial detention would take place in the Nouméa penitentiary center (East Camp), Me Claire Ghiani, lawyer for Joël Tjibaou, and Stéphane Bonomo, counsel for Gilles, told AFP. Jorédié.
The authorities accuse the CCAT of having fomented the riots that occurred from May 13, after the vote on a constitutional bill reforming the electorate for the provincial election scheduled for the end of 2024. This movement refuted this accusation.
The independence camp refuses this reform, which it accuses of reducing the political weight of the indigenous Kanak population. This violence, the most serious to have occurred in the archipelago since the 1980s, left nine dead, according to the authorities’ latest report, and considerable material damage (fires, destruction, looting, etc.).
A renewed tension occurred after the transfer to mainland France, during the night from Saturday to Sunday, of seven independence activists.
