Six Kanak activists file complaint against four French ministers over 2024 arrests and transfers
Off Radar · Friday, 11 September 2026
Why it matters
The complaint opens a formal accountability route over how France used central-government powers during New Caledonia’s autonomy crisis, while the separate prosecutorial appeal keeps the underlying criminal case active. It gives the territory’s institutional conflict a new legal front involving France’s highest ministerial-accountability court.
What happened
Six Kanak pro-independence activists, including Christian Tein, filed a complaint with France’s Court of Justice of the Republic accusing four current or former ministers of arbitrary acts, abuse of authority and criminal conspiracy over their June 2024 arrests and transfers to mainland prisons. The complaint alleges that seven activists were flown to mainland France before investigating judges and a Nouméa judge had ruled on their detention; the court’s petitions commission must decide whether to pursue the case. Paris investigating judges dismissed charges against Tein and other CCAT activists in June, but prosecutors have appealed.
Previously
22 Jun 2024 — Eleven Kanak activists were formally placed under investigation in New Caledonia, and seven were flown to mainland France and placed in seven different prisons.(RFI)
19 Jun 2024 — All CCAT leaders were arrested in New Caledonia during the 2024 mobilisation.(RFI)
May 2024 — Civil unrest in New Caledonia caused 14 deaths, an estimated €2 billion in material damage, a 13.5% fall in GDP and more than 12,000 job losses.(RNZ)
Players & places
- France
- Court of Justice of the Republic
- FLNKS
- Christian Tein
- Sébastien Lecornu
- Gabriel Attal