French court postpones release of Kanak leader following appeal
Photo:
LNC
A Parisian appellate court has delayed the release of New Caledonia's Kanak pro-independence leader, Christian Téin, from custody following an appeal by prosecutors.
Téin, 57, 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 months of civil unrest, arson and looting, causing 14 dead and an estimated €2.2 billion in material damage, mainly in the Greater Nouméa area.
Since his arrest in June 2024
and his transfer
(with others) by plane from New Caledonia to mainland France, Téin has been jailed in Mulhouse (north-eastern France).
Late August 2024, Téin, from his Mulhouse jail, was also nominated, in absentia, president of the pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), of which the Union Calédonienne party is a dominant member.
In January 2025, the case, initially investigated out of Nouméa, was removed from the former investigating judges in Nouméa and transferred to a panel of three Paris judges. Téin's lawyers said they welcomed the "new approach" by the Paris judges.
In a ruling last week, three magistrates found that following Téin's latest hearing, on 27 May 2025, found no sufficient grounds to keep him in custody.
They decided that the Kanak leader should be released from jail, but that he should be kept under judicial supervision and prevented from returning to New Caledonia or interfering with persons related to the case.
In response, the prosecution immediately appealed the ruling.
The Parisian Appellate Court will now hear the case on 12 June.
Nicolas Metzdorf
Photo:
LNC
Reacting to the latest ruling to postpone hearings until 12 June, one prominent and anti-independence leader in New Caledonia, Nicolas Metzdorf (who is also an MP for New Caledonia at the French National Assembly), said he was concerned that Téin's "untimely" release could "upset the balances" of political talks currently underway to find a consensus between all political parties regarding New Caledonia's future.
"I think what we need above all is serenity, calm and people who are willing to build," Metzdorf told public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie La Première on Friday.
French President Emmanuel Macron
Photo:
AFP / POOL / JEANNE ACCORSINI
The talks between all New Caledonia's political groupings, both pro-France and pro-independence, resumed early 2025, fostered by French minister for overseas Emmanuel Valls.
Even though Valls managed to bring back all sides to the same political table, the talks once again stalled on 8 May, after an attempted "conclave" in New Caledonia.
This was mainly because prominent anti-independence parties strongly objected to Valls' proposal to introduce a "sovereignty with France", including the transfer of key powers from Paris to Nouméa, a dual Kanak/French citizenship and an international standing.
Since then, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced his intention to convene all parties once again, this time in Paris in early July, for fresh talks.
On 30 May, one of the pro-independence leaders who was also transferred to France last year, could return
home to New Caledonia.
Frédérique Muliava , a former Congress staffer, was part of a group of six who were charged in relation to the May 2024 riots.
Under her new judicial requirements, set out by the judge in charge of the case, Muliava, once she returns to New Caledonia, is allowed to return to work, but is not to make any contact with other individuals related to her case and not to take part in any public demonstration.
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