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Karachi attack: the declassification of decisive information demanded from Macron

2022-09-16T17:56:05.601Z


Twenty years after the death of eleven French people in the Karachi attack, civil parties and magistrates are calling on Emmanuel Macron to...


Twenty years after the death of eleven French people in the Karachi attack, civil parties and magistrates are calling on Emmanuel Macron to declassify documents protected by defense secrecy and containing crucial information for the progress of investigations.

On May 8, 2002, the explosion of a bus transporting employees or subcontractors of the Naval Construction Department (DCN) in Karachi, Pakistan, killed fifteen people, including eleven French people, and injured many others.

"

It is truly decisive, at this distance from the event, that justice can finally obtain complete communication of any useful substantive element in connection with this bloody attack

", considers the examining magistrate David De Pas in a letter addressed to Emmanuel Macron on August 25 and consulted by AFP.

“Many gray areas”

The magistrate made this request for declassification before leaving his post as coordinator of the anti-terrorism unit at the Paris court.

"

My predecessors, mainly Mr. Marc Trevidic, have repeatedly asked the Ministers of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Interior, but also in 2010 the Prime Minister, in order to obtain the declassification of documents essential to the manifestation of the truth in the two parts of the case

", recalls David De Pas.

Read alsoThe Pashtuns guardians of churches in Karachi

The investigating magistrates who have succeeded in this case have written at least thirteen requests for declassification since 2009, listed Me Olivier Morice, lawyer for civil parties.

"

Too many gray areas still remain today

", considered Me Morice in a letter sent in July to David De Pas, asking him to contact Emmanuel Macron directly to obtain the declassification of the documents.

"despicable crimes"

By authorizing this communication, Emmanuel Macron "

has the ability to allow justice to identify the perpetrators and sponsors of this attack so that they may one day be brought to justice

," said Me Morice in this letter consulted by AFP.

The families are waiting for a political act commensurate with the gravity of these despicable crimes

”.

Usually, this type of request is addressed to the ministries concerned, but the president has the power to order the declassification of information.

Asked by AFP, the Élysée Palace indicated on Friday that it had not "

received any mail corresponding to this request

", recalling that declassification requests were submitted to the National Defense Secret Commission.

However, this independent administrative authority only has an advisory opinion.

Unusable documents

The judicial information in the hands of three investigating judges concerns two aspects.

One, security, concerns possible shortcomings in the security of employees on site.

Two former officials were indicted in June, several people as well as the DCN are placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness.

The second part focuses on the sponsors of this attack, which seems to have been carefully prepared with sophisticated means.

The track of Al-Qaeda, which approved the attack without claiming it, was essential for the first counter-terrorism magistrate seized of the facts, Jean-Louis Bruguière.

Read alsoIndia weighs its response to Pakistan after an attack

From 2009, his successor Marc Trevidic is moving towards the hypothesis of Pakistani reprisals after the cessation of commission payments in the context of an arms contract.

During a meeting in April with the civil parties, the investigating judges affirmed that this track was "

always plausible and priority

", according to Me Morice.

During this meeting, "

the victims were once again moved by the conditions under which the declassified documents could have been transmitted in the past

" and asked that the president be directly approached to obtain their declassification, specifies Mr. De Pas in his letter.

“Unusable” documents

Over the years, elements have been communicated to the justice "

but generally according to methods

" which made them "

totally unusable

", explains the magistrate.

Among this information deemed essential to the investigations in the security aspect is a security audit established by French gendarmes the day after the attack: of the 137 pages of this report, only five were communicated to the courts in 2010.

Read alsoKarachi attack: two former shipyard executives indicted

Another example cited by Me Morice: the elements concerning a suspect, the Saudi Ali Ben Moussalem, one of the three intermediaries who benefited from commissions on the 1994 contracts and who has since died.

The documents on his links with Al-Qaeda "

are completely

'

redacted

'

to the point of being completely unusable

", denounces the lawyer.

In addition, the investigating magistrates hope to be able to travel to Pakistan soon to advance their investigations.

A much-awaited move by the civil parties.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-09-16

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