jpk update

. . . NEWS On Friday at the Palais de Justice , the Vetea Guilloux affair , deferred from 10 April 2009, was again adjourned, this time to 29 January 2010, without argument against. The only legal representative at the hearing was for Mr. Quinquis , and said that, therefore, while not appearing on behalf of the other party, an a priori application for adjournment should still be accepted by the courts, even when unopposed. Again postponed, hearings on this part of the JPK dossier involving Guilloux, with judges deciding on the facts of a case by Vetea Guilloux against others for "false claims" and "wrongful dismissal". In 2004, he publicly accused fellow GIP operatives Tino Mara and Tutu Manate of having 'disappeared' former Pape'ete editor Jean Pascal Couraud . Vetea Guilloux at first admitted to lying, then retracted his admission. Sentenced on first appearance, he appealed, but the Supreme Court quashed a decisi...

NEWS | BEHIND THE HEADLINES A French weekly has attacked the credibility of a document at the centre of l’affaire JPK, a four year old investigation into alleged assassination of a former editor from Tahiti. Journal de Dimanche declared a letter about the asassination of Jean-Pascal Couraud was a “fake.” Attributed to Vetea Cadousteau, the letter is still undergoing tests for authenticity. Cadousteau was former spy found dead in 2006, in a shallow valley river during a pig hunting trip. French media reports his body had socks on, but no shoes. Police from DNIF, the National Directorate of Financial Investigations, found the letter during a September 2008 search at the home of Gaston Flosse, former president of French Polynesia. The letter was in a drawer of his home office bureau. “I know that I will be killed for what I know” it reads. Last month, Flosse said he was lodging defamation suits against local and French media for their re...

. . . NEWS A Tahiti spy wrote he would be murdered to cover up a mafia-style drowning, just off the coast of the capital of French Polynesia. “I know that I will be killed,” reads a letter, unsigned, undated. Attributed to Vetea Cadousteau, the letter outlines how he and three other men allegedly assassinated a former Pape’ete editor in 1997. The body of investigative journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud has never been found. Cadousteau was discovered dead in a river in 2004. Widespread speculation year after year links circumstantial evidence about the deaths to a vast banking scandal, Clearstream, well known among French media audiences, almost unknown in English circles, involving a dossier said to have been hidden by Couraud at his family home. Yesterday’s edition of Le Monde published quotes from the letter about the killing of the investigative journalist, Jean-Pascal Couraud, known as JPK. Initial analysis of the hand written letter returned inconclusively. Follow up tests to authenti...

. . . NEWS Thirteen of 26 new national security documents involving former French president Jacques Chirac are likely to stay top secret, despite links to an inquiry involving alleged assassination. Just 11 of the documents were recommended for full release on 4 December 2008, according to last Friday’s Official Journal, a state gazette. “Partial declassification” for two further documents were made by members of the CCSDN, la Commission consultative du secret de la défense nationale. A powerful advisory commission overseeing judicial inquiries and other requests for release of national defense secrets, CCSDN members recommended against the declassification of 13 documents. This compares with earlier recommendations releasing 16 of 17 documents from another dossier considered by CCSDN . All 132 recommendations from the national security commission have so far been accepted by ministers of the day. First story on the new documents appeared at a quarter to six last Friday evening, accord...

earlier coverage: exposing bank accounts in japan, belonging to former french president, jacques chirac, and former french polynesian president, gaston flosse. . . . NEWS RELEASE A national security commission in Paris approved declassification of 11 documents last Friday, opening new links between an alleged assassination of a former Pape’ete editor with ex-president Jacques Chirac. It is the second dossier of top secret papers to emerge from two judicial inquiries exploring growing links. Of 26, two further papers were recommended for partially declassification by La Commission consultative du secret de la défense nationale (CCSDN), a powerful advisory commission overseeing judicial inquiries and other requests for release of national defense secrets. Commission members recommended 13 documents not be approved for declassification. All 132 recommendations from the national security commission have so far been accepted by ministers of the day. First story on the new do...

. . . NEWS PARIS (Oceania Flash/Pacific Media Watch): Most of the files seized as part of recent investigations in French Polynesia could be made available to a judge based in Pape'ete who is currently investigating possible links between this French Pacific territory and former French President Jacques Chirac, as well as alleged bank accounts in Japan, French media reported at the weekend. The files, seized since June this year in the French Polynesian capital Pape'ete, belong to the French secret service, the DGSE. They have since remained inaccessible because they were classified as "secret defence" information. Pape'ete-based judge Jean-François Redonnet, who ordered the searches, had asked permission to use these files. Ruling on the issue, a consultative commission on national defence secret files, decided that of the 17 files, 16 should be declassified. The decision was published in the French Republic's official gazette last week. However, the final ...

The JPK affair involves a lone journalist in French Polynesia, and his family, fighting against the full power of the republic. ... Who killed JPK? a 30 year overview of the JPK affair, from 1967, when Jean-Pascal was a boy by avaiki nius agency editor jason brown 15th December 1997 Surveillance agents, trained by French spies, lash nylon rope through concrete blocks, four of them, to the body of Jean-Pascal Couraud, investigative journalist. His blood ebbs onto the afterdeck of the motorboat, rocking languidly in open ocean swells. Full moon night, open ocean between two islands. Mo'orea and Tahiti. Shark night. 1967 Jean-Pascal, six, holds up a small fish, orange. Francette kneels, raises the family camera from it's neck strap, captures the boy, the fish, a first, a lagoon vista sweeping behind him. There are no mushroom clouds near Mo'orea. In time, the blond French boy eyes a looming reef curl, board underarm. Local Maohi nearby p...

jean-pascal couraud, above TV REVIEW Death in the tropics Presented by Elise Lucet. An inquiry by Magali Serre and Christian Gaudin (France, 2008). 105 minutes. In 1997, Tahitian journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud, by-lined JPK, disappeared under troubling circumstances. Suicide? At first, the family take this hypothesis on board, before revelations in 2004 by a certain Vetea Guilloux lead them to lodge a complaint for murder and complicity. Investigative journalist and opposition politicians aimed at Gaston Flosse (then president of Polynesia), JPK investigating a number of sensitive dossiers of local and metropolitan authorities, addressing issues including patronage, fictitious jobs and embezzlement. He was therefore closely monitored by GIP, the Intervention Group of Polynesia, assimilated as a section under the presidency, a service employing Vetea Guilloux. If they fail to precisely identify those truly responsible for the death of Jean-Pascal Couraud, numerous documents and testimon...

tahitipresse carries news of the flosse defamation claim NEWS translated from Tahitipresse, France 3 French senator Gaston Flosse says he will lay a claim of defamation against a documentary on France 3 TV accusing him of “the most abominable acts” relating to the disappearance in 1997 of journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud. Broadcast in France on June 20 and rebroadcast in French Polynesia on June 22, the Tempo programme “Pieces of Evidence” focused on alleged graft by former French president Jacques Chirac, involving bank accounts in Japan. Titled “Death in the Tropics” the documentary also focused on the role played by Flosse, alleging links with the disappearance of Couraud, by-lined JPK. "This programme, specifically slanted, violates the basic principles of any democracy,” said Senator Flosse in a press release, carried by Tahiti Press Agency. "I am indeed accused of the most abominable acts without being able to respond because despite the age of the criminal investigations...

NEWS RELEASE Two French media giants are marking the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of former Pape'ete editor, Jean-Pascal Couraud, with independent investigations. Second most popular in French radio, France Inter and leading daily newspaper Le Monde are both set to release indepth reports into allegations of assassination. Reportage seems sure to increase pressure on authorities previously foot dragging their way through official inquiries, now in their third year. Couraud disappeared nearly one decade ago, on Monday night of 15th December 1997. MAFIA Initial findings of suicide remained unchallenged until October 2004. Vetea Guilloux, a presidential security agent, told the administration of Oscar Temaru, then new, about widespread espionage activities in his surveillance section. Including, allegedly, overhearing colleagues boast about the mafia-style drowning of the investigative journalist - known by his byline "JPK". Like Watergate, L'Affair JPK is beco...

Papeete, le 5 décembre 2007 A tous les amis, membres et sympathisants du Comité de soutien, Tenue de notre assemblée générale annuelle Tous les membres et sympathisants du Comité de soutien sont cordialement invités à notre assemblée générale annuelle qui se tiendra le mardi 11 décembre 2007 à 17h30 à l'hôtel Shératon de Faaa afin de délibérer sur les points ci-dessous inscrits à l'ordre du jour : 1. Situation et contenu du dossier d'enquête 2. Examen des comptes de l'association 3. Renouvellement du bureau 4. Questions diverses Rendez-vous avec la presse A tous nos amis résidant en France, nous rappelons la diffusion sur France Inter de l'émission « Interception » réalisée par Benoît Collombat, le dimanche 16 décembre à 9h10 heure française. France Inter étant retransmis en direct sur RFO Polynésie toutes les nuits (à partir de 22h00 le samedi), cette émission pourra être également écoutée le samedi 15 décembre à 22 heures 10 en Polynésie f...

COMMUNIQUE soutienjpk.org Papeete, December 5, 2007 To all the friends, members and supporters of the Support Committee, Hosting of our AGM All members and sympathisers of the Support Committee are cordially invited to our annual general meeting to be held Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 17:30 at the Hotel Sheraton in Fa'aa to deliberate on the following items listed on the agenda : 1. Situation report and contents in the inquiry dossier. 2. Examination of accounts of the association 3. Renewal of office bearers 4. Other business Rendevouz with the Press To all our friends residing in France, we remind you of the dissemination on France Inter radio of the programme "Interception" by Benedict Collombat, Sunday, December 16th at 9:10am French time. France Inter being broadcast live on RFO Polynesia every night (from 22:00 Saturday), the program can also be heard Saturday, Dec. 15 at 22:10am in French Polynesia, day of the tenth anniversary of the death of Jean-Pascal Couraud...

Court rulings favour continuation of an investigation into the disappearance of a former Pape'ete journalist nearly ten years ago - with promises from the still new Sarkozy government to look into the details, reports Tahitipresse. NEWS from Tahiti Press Agency JPK Affair: Support Committee welcomes decisions from the Chamber of Instruction (Tahitipresse) - The Support Committee for the search for the truth about the disappearance of Jean-Pascal Couraud "welcomes, in a statement, two recent decisions by the Chamber of Investigation, in Papeete, in the case of the disappearance of journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud, in December 1997." The first decision concerns, according to the support committee, "the assent of the Chamber of Instruction to ensure that records are kept of the material seized from General Rondot (i.e., in connection with the Clearstream affair, in metropolitan France) referring to Japanese bank accounts (i.e., assumed to belong to the former President...

COMMITTEE UPDATE Soutien JPK released the following update earlier today, carried below in French. Papeete, le 19 octobre 2007 A tous les amis, membres et sympathisants du Comité de soutien, Les éléments déjà recueillis montrent que l’enquête doit être poursuivie Comme indiqué dans notre dernier communiqué du mois de septembre 2007, nous avons pris connaissance ces dernières semaines du dossier d’enquête que le juge d’instruction Philippe Stelmach se propose de clore en l’état. Comme nous nous y attendions, la lecture du dossier d’instruction montre bien au contraire la réelle nécessité de poursuivre l’enquête. Les principaux éléments sur lesquels se fonde un tel constat sont les suivants : 1- Les nombreuses contradictions et mensonges avérés de certains proches de Jean-Pascal Couraud sur le déroulement précis de la dernière soirée passée à son domicile : leur mise en évidence lors des gardes à vue réalisées en début d’année 2007 nécessite de nouvelles invest...