Court proceedings begin against suspected ringleader of New Caledonia riots

The authorities did not immediately say what crimes Christian Tein – head of the CCAT pro-independence group – was charged with at his interview with an investigating magistrate in the courthouse in the New Caledonian capital Nouméa.

His half-hour hearing at the judges' office was the first among a group of 11 arrested on Wednesday over the recent violence, in which nine people including two police officers died.

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Hundreds more were wounded, and around €1.5 billion of damage was inflicted during the riots.

The remainder of the group were set to be charged later Saturday, including CCAT communications chief Brenda Wanabo, who is also in custody

According to Thomas Gruet, a lawyer for Wanabo: "My client never imagined she would find herself here. She's extremely shocked, in her eyes she's just an activist".

'Mafia-style' allegations

Riots, street barricades and looting broke out in New Caledonia in mid-May over an electoral reform plan that indigenous Kanak people feared would leave them in a permanent minority, putting independence hopes definitively out of reach. 

France's government repeatedly accused Tein's CCAT of orchestrating the violence, to which it responded by sending over 3,000 troops and police to the territory almost 17,000 kilometres from Paris. 

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Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin called it a "mafia-style organisation", although CCAT has always denied being behind the riots.

Nouméa's chief prosecutor Yves Dupas said his investigation has covered crimes including armed robbery and complicity in murder or attempted murder, without specifying who could be charged with which crime.

Tein himself had contacted police to give himself up "so as to explain his view of the allegations," Dupas said.

Not all of the other detainees have been identified.