- Title: FRANCE: FAMILY PRESS CONFERENCE ON FIVE FRENCHMEN ACCUSED OF SPYING IN INDIA
- Date: 20th December 1996
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (DECEMBER 20, 1996) RTV - ACCESS ALL 1. SLV (LEFT TO RIGHT) DANIELLE LEJEUNE (MOTHER OF ONE OF THE DETAINEES), JACQUES MIQUEL (LAWYER), STEPHANE MALVOISIN (HEAD OF ASSOCIATION SUPPORTING FAMILIES) , FRANCOISE ELLE (RELATED TO SKIPPER OF SHIP PHILIPPE ELLE) 0.09 2. MV MIQUEL SAYING HE HOPED FOR A SIGN FROM THE INDIAN AUTHORITIES BUT NO SIGN CAME. HE ALSO REGRETTED AND PROTESTED THE FACT THAT THESE FRENCHMEN HAD BEEN HELD IN INDIA FOR MORE THAN A YEAR BUT NOT ONE CHARGE, NOT ONE HEARING HAD BEEN PUT FORWARD. TO HOLD THE FAMILIES IN SUCH UNCERTAINTY WAS INTOLERABLE (FRENCH) 1.13 3. SCU LEJEUNE LISTENING 1.21 4. MV MALVOISIN SAYING ALL THE EQUIPMENT ON BOARD THE BOAT WAS STANDARD EQUIPMENT, COMPATIBLE WITH THEIR EXPEDITION TO THE PORTUGUESE WRECK (FRENCH) 1.43 5. SLV JOURNALISTS 1.53 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 4th January 1997 12:00
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- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- City:
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA82JSWUN4WDM0U59YLQW35WEZV
- Story Text: INTRO: The families and lawyers of five Frenchmen held in India for over a year on charges of espionage have held a press conference in Paris to appeal for help in their case.
The families told a complicated story on Friday (December 21).
One year ago five Frenchmen set sail for the Indian Ocean aboard the vessel Galatee, on an archaelogical expedition to explore the wreck of a Portuguese boat that had sunk off the coastline more than four centuries ago.
The crew was arrested by the Indian coastguard and jailed on January 10. After several months in jail they were released under caution in June. Since then, they have been under house arrest waiting for the charges to be officially dropped.
The families and an association created to help them say the Indian government is not proceeding fast enough to bring the case to court so the men can plead their innocence.
Their lawyer, Jacques Miquel, said they had all hoped for a "sign from the Indian authorities but no sign came." He said they regretted and most of all "protested" the fact that these Frenchmen had been held in India for more than a year, and for several months were suspected of spy activies, yet to this day "not one charge, not one hearing" had been officially put forward.
He said to detain these men, to hold the families in such uncertainty like this was "intolerable".
Stephane Malvoisin, head of the association helping the families, said a dossier had been prepared and presented to the Indian authorities countering each of the charges.
The Frenchmen are suspected of possessing sophisticated material on their boat to be used for spying, to have carried out their operation in a strategic sensitive zone, to have carried out their activities without proper authorisation and to have lied about their visas.
The group had entered the waters on tourist visas for their archaelogical exploration but the families claim the French were mislead by an Indian captain who organised the expedition and said all necessary papers were in order.
Malvoisin listed the equipment on board the ship and said it was standard equipment used in research archaeology and not for spying.
Seated at the head table was Danielle Lejeune, mother of Pierre Hughes, one of the five held in India. Pierre Hughes, 25, joined the expedition as an technician because he was unemployed and desperate to work.
The lawyer for the group said that a hearing was scheduled for January 3, 1997 but he feared the case would only be delayed again without international pressure.
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