Guadeloupe: four firefighters indicted after the November demonstrations

Europe 1 with AFP 2:17 p.m., March 27, 2022, modified at 2:18 p.m., March 27, 2022

Four firefighters were indicted in particular for "complicity in destruction by fire" during the November blockades in Guadeloupe, Pointe-à-Pitre prosecutor Patrick Desjardins told AFP on Saturday.

They are also accused of "obstructing traffic", he continued, adding that these indictments dated from March 18.

The four firefighters were "placed under judicial control with a ban on exercising their activity, but they appealed", said Patrick Desjardins.

A firefighter had been arrested in November, "caught in the act" by the gendarmes while he was "carrying tires" towards a dam in a vehicle, according to the same source.

He has since been charged and placed under judicial supervision. 

In addition, in a separate case, but linked to the blockades of November, a man was arrested last week, and indicted for "burglary and theft in an organized gang" within the framework of an investigation into the looting of an armory in Baie-Mahault (central Guadeloupe), said the prosecutor, adding that the man had been remanded in custody.

Sentenced in December to fifteen months in prison

The alleged facts took place on the night of November 19 to 20.

A weapon from the armory, "almost the main part that had been stolen", was found during a search of the home of the thirties, as part of the investigation carried out by the research section of the gendarmerie.

According to the prosecutor, "he admitted his direct involvement in the facts".

"This is the first arrest directly related to the theft," he said.

A man had already been arrested with a weapon he had obtained via a social network.

He was sentenced in December to fifteen months in prison, nine of which were suspended.

His arrest "could direct the investigation" towards the "main suspect", explained the prosecutor, specifying that the investigations were continuing. 

At the end of 2021, Guadeloupe experienced a protest movement against the health pass and the obligation to vaccinate against Covid-19 which widened to social demands, leading to demonstrations and urban violence.