This decision of high symbolic value, learned Thursday from a source close to the case and confirmed by a judicial source, was feared by elected officials and residents of Martinique and Guadeloupe, who have regularly denounced a risk of "denial of justice".

In an order signed on Monday and more than 300 pages long, two investigating magistrates from the public health and environment pole of the Paris judicial court put an end to this judicial investigation opened in 2008.

Rarely, the two judges conclude their order with five pages of explanations on the reasons for their dismissal.

The pollution of the West Indies with chlordecone is a "health scandal" and an "environmental attack whose human, economic and social consequences affect and will affect for many years the daily life of the inhabitants" of Martinique and Guadeloupe.

A woman wears a t-shirt bearing the slogan "All against chlordecone" at La Boucan in Sainte-Rose, on the island of Guadeloupe, on November 29, 2021 © Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP/Archives

According to them, the investigation established "the anti-social behavior of some of the economic players in the banana sector, relayed and amplified by the imprudence, negligence, ignorance of the public authorities, administrators and politicians who authorized the use of chlordecone at a time when economic productivity took precedence over health and environmental concerns".

But the dismissal decision is justified according to them first of all by the difficulty of "reporting criminal proof of the facts denounced", "committed 10, 15 or 30 years before the filing of complaints", the first having summer in 2006.

The magistrates also underline "the state of technical or scientific knowledge" at the beginning of the 1990s, which "did not allow" to establish "the certain causal link required by criminal law" between the pesticide and damage to health. .

"It is not possible to assert scientific advances" later because they are "post-facts" subject of the judicial information, underline the judges.

Also arguing about various obstacles linked to the law, the magistrates attest that "the cause (of the complainants) has been heard" and that they had the "concern" to obtain a "judicial truth", but they note their impossibility to " characterize a criminal offence".

Covertly, the order also tackles most of the civil parties, "long silent" in this investigation and whose "interest in the investigation only awoke" two years ago.

Photos of bananas that undergo washing on November 24, 2022 in Basse-Pointe, Martinique © Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP/Archives

The two judges quite openly invite the victims of chlordecone to take advantage of "the causality now established" between the pesticide and the damage suffered by the population to seize "other authorities".

This dismissal is a "shame", reacted the Confederation paysanne.

"It's an announced scandal, so it's not a huge surprise. What we know is that all the lawyers intend to continue the proceedings, that is to say to challenge this decision", assured Philippe Pierre-Charles, member of the collective Lyannaj pou Depolyé Matinik.

For Maître Louis Boutrin, lawyer for the association Pour Une Économie Urbaine, civil party since 2007, this decision is "a denial of justice".

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-90% of populations affected-

Used in banana plantations to fight against the weevil, chlordecone was authorized in Martinique and Guadeloupe until 1993, under derogation, when the rest of French territory had banned its use.

He was only banned from the West Indies 15 years after warnings from the World Health Organization.

It caused significant and long-lasting pollution of the two islands.

According to a report published on December 6 by the National Health Security Agency (ANSES), nearly 90% of the populations of Martinique and Guadeloupe are contaminated with chlordecone.

The West Indies hold the sad world record for prostate cancer.

Since December 22, 2021, it has been recognized as an occupational disease, paving the way for compensation for agricultural workers.

In 2006, several Martinican and Guadeloupean associations had filed a complaint for poisoning, endangering the lives of others and administration of harmful substances.

On November 25, the Paris prosecutor's office had requested a dismissal, considering that the facts were prescribed, particularly with regard to poisoning, or not characterized, concerning the administration of harmful substances.

Since the announcement of these requisitions, demonstrations and rallies have resumed in Martinique, after the thousands of people who marched in Fort-de-France in February 2021.

On December 6, the president of the executive council of the territorial community of Martinique, Serge Letchimy, arrested Emmanuel Macron in the face of the risk of "denial of justice".

The Head of State is “the first to have recognized the responsibility of the State in the pollution of chlordecone in 2018”, defended it the same day the Minister Delegate for Overseas, Jean-François Carenco.

© 2023 AFP