Patrick
Decloitre, Correspondent French Pacific
Desk
New Caledonia’s pro-independence Kanak leader
Christian Téin will remain in mainland France jail for the
time being, a French Cour de Cassation ruled on
Tuesday.
Téin is the head of a Field Action
Coordinating Cell (CCAT), a group created late 2023 by New
Caledonia’s largest and oldest pro-independence party Union
Calédonienne.
From October 2023 onward, the CCAT
organised a series of marches and demonstrations that later
degenerated (starting 13 May 2024) into onths of civil
unrest, arson and looting, causing 14 dead and an estimated
€2.2 billion in material damage, mainly in the Greater
Nouméa area.
In the French judicial system, the Cour
de Cassation intervenes in the third instance (after an
initial ruling and in second instance in appeal
ruling).
It is tasked with examining potential
shortfalls in the previous rulings procedure.
On 8
April, the Cour de Cassation criminal chamber said Téin’s
lawyers’ latest request was not to be entertained.
It
evoked “a grave risk of public order unrest”, further
stating that the previous ruling had not infringed Téin’s
rights.
Reacting to French media on Tuesday, Téin’s
lawyer François Roux said he was “more or less expecting”
the ruling.
“Apparently, the Cour de Cassation
believes things have been done correctly, this time”, he
said.
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In another recent development, Roux also
recalled another ruling earlier this year whereby Téin’s
case has now been removed from the jurisdiction of New
Caledonia-based judges and has been transferred back to
judges in France.
Roux also confirmed his intention
now to bring the matter to the European Court of Human
Rights, as well as the United Nations’ human rights
mechanisms, especially on the circumstances that surrounded
Téin’s transfer to France .
The latest ruling came
following an earlier series of court hearings regarding the
pro-independence leader, who was arrested in June 2024 and
later indicted for his alleged involvement in the riots that
broke out in New Caledonia.
The charges all relate to
criminal activities, including being a party or being
accomplice to murder attempts and thefts involving the use
of weapons.
Four days after his arrest in Nouméa,
Téin was transferred to mainland France aboard a
specially-chartered plane and has since been remanded in the
prison of Mulhouse (North-east of France) pending his
trial.
Téin’s defence maintains it was never his
client’s intention to commit such crimes.
Reacting to
recent comments made by pro-independence party Union
Calédonienne, who maintains Téin is a political prisoner,
Nouméa Public Prosecutor Yves Dupas said Téin and others
facing similar charges “are still presumed innocent”, but
“are not political prisoners, they have not been held in
relation to a political motive”.
“The judicial inquiry
aims at establishing every responsibility, especially at the
level of ‘order givers,” Dupas said.
He confirmed six
persons were still being detained in several jails in
France, including Téin.
Three others have been
released but maintained under judiciary control with an
obligation to remain in mainland France.
Late August
2024, Téin, from his Mulhouse jail, was also elected in
absentia president of the pro-independence umbrella FLNKS at
its Congress.
The August 2024 Congress was also marked
by the non-attendance of two other main pillars of the
movement, UPM and PALIKA, who have since confirmed their
intention to distance themselves from FLNKS.
French
minister, parties have re-engaged in political
talks
Since earlier this year, New Caledonia’s
pro-France and pro-independence parties have re-engaged in
political talks with France’s Minister for Overseas Manuel
Valls, who has already travelled twice to the French Pacific
territory to re-engage of process of
“discussions”.
FLNKS and its main component Union
Calédonienne are demanding that Téin should be allowed to
take part in those talks aiming at defining New Caledonia’s
future political status, a demand that most pro-France
parties strongly oppose.
Valls has announced he will
return to New Caledonia on 29 April 2025 to resume talks
with the hope that they will turn into negotiations
proper.
Before his return, he has also scheduled a
video conference involving all local political parties on
Friday 11 April 2025.
Since Valls’s last visit, which
ended on 1 April, political parties involved have studied
and are preparing their respective amendments on a working
document the French minister left behind.
They have
also gradually commented on their “discussions” with the
French former Prime minister.
FLNKS’s lukewarm media
conference
In its latest media conference and the
associated media release on 8 April, the FLNKS made a series
of comments, sometimes critical, regarding its
yet-unattended claims, including Téin’s release as a
“political prisoner”.
The FLNKS also puts a
prerequisite to its future participation in talks and
negotiations, saying it will seek the mandate of a
“Convention” to be held on 26 April 2025.
“The
objective remains the same, and it is full sovereignty”,
FLNKS political bureau Secretary General Dominique Fochi
said on Tuesday.
He however acknowledged that the
“discussions” phase was now complete, but that Valls’s
suggested “compromise” and “concessions” from all sides
would entail a “lose-lose” situation.
“We will not
sign at all costs unless we see the benefits”, he
said.
‘It’s going to take a little more time’:
Metzdorf
On the pro-France side, vocal leader and
French MP Nicolas Metzdorf told local media on Sunday that
to expect a political agreement to be signed during Valls’s
next visit at the end of April 2025 was “definitely an
optimistic version of the story”.
“I think it’s going
to take a little more time than this”.
He said, from
what he felt during the previous talks, one of the main
stumbling blocks was the notion of self-determination and
its various
interpretations.
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