who is Christian Tein, the independence leader placed in pre-trial detention in France?

The spokesperson for the Field Action Coordination Unit (CCAT), suspected of having orchestrated the unrest against electoral reform in the overseas territory, must be imprisoned in Mulhouse, according to his lawyer.

He will sleep behind bars, 17,000 km from his archipelago. Christian Tein, head of the Field Action Coordination Unit (CCAT) in New Caledonia, flew on the night of Saturday June 22 to Sunday June 23 for France, where he must be placed in pre-trial detention, just like six others activists. They are among the 11 people arrested during a raid targeting the Kanak independence collective, suspected of having orchestrated the riots against electoral reform in the Pacific archipelago, which left nine dead, including two gendarmes.

“All the leaders, activists and sympathizers of the Caledonian Union learned with shock of the deportation to mainland France during the night of the leaders and activists of the CCAT, including our general commissioner Bichou Tein [Christian Tein] as well as two mothers of young children”protested the Caledonian Union (UC), political party involved in the creation of the CCAT in November 2023.

Christian Tein, resident of the Saint-Louis Kanak tribe in the commune of Mont-Dore and originally from Ouen Island, must be incarcerated in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) according to his lawyer, Pierre Ortet, who informed franceinfo of his “total amazement”. “I can assure you that we were never informed of my client’s departure for mainland France. We learned this at the end of the hearing before the judge of freedoms and detention, which was held behind closed doors.explains his counsel, announcing that he has appealed this decision.

“He is very attached to his territory and we never imagined for a single second that we could send him to the other side of the world.”

Pierre Ortet, lawyer for Christian Tein

at franceinfo

According to the Nouméa prosecutor, Yves Dupas, the 56-year-old independence leader himself presented himself to the gendarmerie on Wednesday morning to be taken before investigators. “in order to explain the alleged facts”. After almost 96 hours in police custody, he entered the judges’ office on Saturday and came out barely half an hour later, after he was notified of his indictment.

The investigation was opened for acts of criminal conspiracy, armed theft by an organized gang, complicity by instigation in murder or attempted murder of persons holding public authority. The independence collective, which has always denied being at the origin of the unrest, had been described as“mafia organization” committing “looting and murder” by the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Gérald Darmanin.

During the creation of the CCAT, which brings together the main independence groups in New Caledonia, Christian Tein, general commissioner of the UC, explained the objective of this grouping, as reported by La 1ère: “The idea is to say that we must continue to build this beautiful country together.” The collective intended to weigh in on the negotiations around “the martyr document”, the executive’s road map for the institutional reform of the archipelago, of which the project to thaw the much-contested electoral body was part. The main spokesperson for the coordination cell, he has become its main face.

In mid-May, the leader called on the demonstrators to calm down, on Nouvelle-Calédonie La 1ère and on Radio Djiido, close to the separatists. In particular, he asked young people “to lift their foot, to stay where they are, on the edges [des routes]organized, structured.” “The CCAT has never called for looting the stores”, he added, calling on parents to “to not let [les enfants] go in all directions. We must control the work we committed ourselves to.”

“What we want today is for mediation to take place”, he declared again on franceinfo on May 19. To lead it, Christian Tein suggested the name of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, “who can listen to the Caledonians”.

Christian Tein met Emmanuel Macron during the Head of State’s visit to the archipelago at the end of May. In a video broadcast on Facebook on May 24 and relayed by La 1ère, he discussed the subjects discussed with the Head of State. He particularly mentioned the “dissatisfaction with the way this subject [du corps électoral] was treated by his cabinet and especially the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Darmanin.” The separatist, under house arrest with the obligation to report to the police station, had also pleaded for the lifting of these summons from CCAT officials: “We cannot go and explain the issues, calm things down, if we have not removed these obstacles.”

“We maintain all the resistance in the neighborhoods. But it is a resistance where we pay attention to our lives, we pay attention to our children.”

Christian Tein

in a video posted on Facebook at the end of May

As La 1ère analyzes, the arrest and transfer to France of several representatives of the CCAT, including Christian Tein, could mark a turning point, after more than a month of blockades and violence in New Caledonia. The night from Saturday to Sunday was restless in certain areas of the Noumea metropolitan area and several traffic disturbances and acts of vandalism were reported on Sunday morning.

In a press release, the CCAT announced that its members expected these arrests and “calls on all independence activists not to respond to this new provocation, to demonstrate [leur] determination and not to fall into this colonial maneuver from another time”. On Saturday, the curfew in place since May 14 was extended until July 1, AFP said.