Convicted of domestic violence, the new commander of the New Caledonian gendarmerie, Eric Steiger, was relieved of his duties at his request.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and the Director General of the National Gendarmerie were able to discuss with the Colonel “about his personal situation”, said a press release from Place Beauvau on Friday.
"At the end of this exchange, Colonel Steiger chose to ask to be relieved of his duties in New Caledonia", indicates the ministry, which adds that a new commander "will soon be appointed".
In the meantime, "command will be provided by the second in command," the statement said.
In recent days, several leaders of New Caledonia, such as deputies Philippe Gomes and Philippe Dunoyer, had demanded the departure of the commander, after the revelations of the Mediapart news site according to which the high-ranking official had been convicted of domestic violence on his wife , first at first instance in 2020, then on appeal last May.
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The 48-year-old colonel was sentenced in February 2020 to a six-month suspended prison sentence for violence committed between November 2017 and June 2018, before seeing his sentence reduced on appeal to a fine of 6,000 euros by the Court of Appeal of Paris, the investigation site reported.
A complaint filed in June 2018
According to Mediapart, the wife of Eric Steiger had, in her complaint filed in early June 2018, explained to have been blocked against a cupboard with her head violently twisted and to have been insulted "of illiteracy, dirt or big bitch".
The couple's eldest daughter is said to have intervened several times to help her mother.
Eric Steiger arrived in New Caledonia in August 2020 as second in command of the gendarmerie before being promoted.
Contacted, the gendarmerie in New Caledonia had initially indicated that there would be "no reaction or comment".
Questioned in our columns on August 1, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had assured
that any police officer or gendarme convicted of domestic violence should no longer be in contact with the public, pending a decision by the disciplinary council.