• Monday morning, gendarmes arrested Jean-Paul Thénon, a Polynesian doctor who defends the use of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19.

  • The doctor was not arrested because of his medical choices, but for other ongoing cases, said the prosecutor of Tahiti, who wanted to cut short the rumors linking the arrest to the doctor's medical choices. 

Supporter of hydroxychloroquine to treat the first signs of Covid-19, Jean-Paul Théron, a Polynesian doctor, was arrested Monday morning by the gendarmes.

The arrest, agitated, has since aroused excitement online and many approximations on the reasons for this intervention by the gendarmes.

"Shameful interpellation", thus published the account L'Infirmier, followed by more than 53,000 subscribers on Twitter.

"His crime?

Apply the treatment [of] Professor Raoult (Ivermectin + hydroxychloroquine).

The video of the arrest was also relayed by Florian Philippot, president of the Patriots, who denounces a "shocking arrest" of the doctor "whose great fault is to apply the treatment of Professor Raoult".

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Jean-Paul Théron was not arrested for facts related to his activity as a doctor, insisted on clarifying the prosecutor Hervé Leroy, in a video relayed Monday by our colleagues from Polynesia La 1ère.

"Mr. Théron is in police custody for facts of common law and absolutely not for facts related to his activity of doctor", recalled the prosecutor.

A bailiff's clerk lodged a complaint after going to the doctor's home on Thursday, where Jean-Paul Théron receives a consultation.

This cleric would have, that day, been targeted by an object, according to the prosecutor, which resulted in a total incapacity for work (ITT) of eight days.

"A false assault", defended the doctor to Polynesia La 1ère, arguing that the clerk had presented himself while he was receiving patients and at "19h", "outside of legal hours".

Placed in custody

After this complaint, the gendarmes went to the doctor on Saturday to hear him on this case.

There, the police "were verbally attacked", details Hervé Leroy.

It is for these two events that the prosecutor decided to send the gendarmes to question the doctor.

The gendarmes went to the doctor's home on Sunday, according to the local channel TNTV News, but he was not there.

They therefore went on Monday morning to the medical center in the commune of Paea, a center set up in early September, while Tahiti and Polynesia were hit by a second wave of Covid-19.

After his arrest, Jean-Paul Théron received a medical examination and was placed in police custody in the Tahiti hospital center.

585 dead from Covid-19 in Polynesia

Jean-Paul Théron was part of a collective asking that city doctors can prescribe hydroxychloroquine.

After banning this practice, the Polynesian government finally reversed its decision.

After the drop in the number of hospitalizations, the confinement in force in Tahiti and in certain Polynesian islands since August 23 has been gradually lifted since Tuesday.

The curfew, however, remains in force.

The archipelago deplores 585 deaths from Covid-19, three quarters of which since the beginning of August.

Health

Coronavirus in Polynesia: Maintenance of the curfew, but gradual lifting of confinement

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