The French Supreme Court will examine the appeal of five Kanak pro-independence activists – including their leader Christian Tein – who are challenging their detention in mainland France on suspicion of having played a role in the unrest in New Caledonia.
This Tuesday's appeal at the French Supreme Court will examine in particular "the decision by the judges in Nouméa to exile the defendants without any adversarial debate, and the conditions under which the transfer was carried out," according to François Roux, one of the defendants' lawyers.
"Many of them are fathers, cut off from their children," the lawyer explained.
The decision from France's highest court is expected to be handed down quickly.
The transfer of the five activists to mainland France at the end of June was organised overnight using a specially chartered plane, according to Nouméa public prosecutor Yves Dupas, who has argued that it was necessary to continue the investigations "in a calm manner".
Roux has denounced the "inhumane conditions" in which they were transported: "They were strapped to their seats and handcuffed throughout the transfer, even to go to the toilet, and they were forbidden to speak".
Left wing politicians in France have also slammed the conditions of detainees, who they underline were deported more than 17,000 km from their home for resisting "colonial oppression".
Ongoing investigation into violence
A total of seven activists from the CCAT separatist coalition are accused by the French government of orchestrating deadly riots earlier this year and are currently incarcerated – five in various prisons in France and two in New Caledonia itself.
Among those detained in mainland France is Christian Tein, the CCAT leader who was named president of the FLNKS independence movement at the end of August.
They are under investigation for, among other things, complicity in attempted murder, organised gang theft with a weapon, organised gang destruction of another person's property by a means dangerous to people and participation in a criminal association with a view to planning a crime.
Two CCAT activists who were initially imprisoned have since been placed under house arrest in mainland France.
Christian Tein, imprisoned in the Alsatian city of Mulhouse, is suspected of having orchestrated the violence – on a scale not seen since the 1980s – which broke out on 13 May against an electoral reform the pro-independence movement believes will marginalise the indigenous Kanak population.
Thirteen people – including two gendarmes – were killed and the damage is estimated at several billion euros.
The Kanak leader, born in 1968, has always denied having incited violence, claiming to be a political prisoner.
