Alexis de Dieuleveult sent Wednesday to the Paris court a request for reopening of the judicial investigation, opened in 1996 and closed according to him by a dismissal in October 2004, for insufficient charges.

Jean, Alexis' father, had filed a complaint in February 1995 for intentional homicide, convinced that his brother Philippe, host of the television program "La Chasse au Trésor", and his six companions had been victims of a "blur " in 1985 in Zaire, during an Africa-Raft expedition.

He then accused France of having covered the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, then president of Zaire, which has since become the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The family's thesis, which revealed that Philippe de Dieuleveult had belonged to the foreign intelligence service (DGSE), contradicts the version given to him, that of an accidental disappearance by drowning in the Inga rapids, at the extreme west of the DRC.

"Since 2020, I have immersed myself in this affair to close this file. I do not accept this official thesis", indicated to AFP Alexis de Dieuleveult, author of a book "Drownings of State: the Death of Philippe de Dieuleveult" (Ed. Balland, 2022).

He claims in particular to have had "access to various documents and archives", including diplomatic telegrams from the French ambassador at the time in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).

According to him, the ambassador quotes "the hypothesis of the military blunder" and evokes "mercenaries" and "armed men".

He evokes many testimonies which would support his thesis, among which those of Admiral Pierre Lacoste, director of foreign intelligence at the time, now deceased, but also of Roland Dumas, then Minister of Foreign Relations or Christian Prouteau, ex-boss of the GIGN and head of the anti-terrorist unit of the Elysée at the time of the events.

According to him, all would support a criminal hypothesis or at the very least would contradict the version given so far.

A former Zairian secret service official, Okito Bene Bene, published a book in 1994 claiming to have witnessed the host's execution.

He is long dead.

In 2009, the Paris prosecutor's office had opened and then dismissed a preliminary investigation concerning a document published by the magazine XXI presented as a report of the hearing of the host Philippe de Dieuleveult by the Congolese services.

The prosecution had concluded that it was a forgery.

© 2023 AFP