Chlordecone in the West Indies. The Paris prosecutor’s office is demanding dismissal

The Paris prosecutor’s office has requested an end to the investigation into a large-scale poisoning involving the use of chlordecone in the French West Indies, it told AFP on Friday (Nov. 25), confirming a source close to the file.

The move was expected, as the Paris investigative judges of the Public Health Center announced at the end of March that they were closing their investigations without indicting them. Banned in mainland France in 1990, chlordecone continued to be used in the West Indies until 1993, when it was suspected of causing a wave of cancer.

More than 90% of the adult population is infected with chlordecone

In 2006, several associations in Martinique and Guadeloupe filed complaints for poisoning, endangering the lives of others, and the use of harmful substances. In 2008, a judicial investigation was started in the Paris court.

“The refusal decision, far from being a denial of justice, is a judicial decision after the examination and analysis of all the elements of the relevant procedure.,” cares the prosecution in its final indictment dated Thursday, consulted by AFP. “Nor can it be claimed that the use of chlordecone during the period of its approval and thereafter has not produced any harmful results.“, he adds.

But the prosecutor, in particular, believes that the facts are established, particularly in terms of poisoning or the use of unspecified harmful substances, which prevents any criminal prosecution.

For the prosecution, the complaints stem, in particular, from “information is needed on all the elements that led to the regulation of chlordecone“to which the magistrates tried to answer”.as comprehensive as possible“. Already in 2021, investigating judges had informed several civilians about their analysis, according to which the facts would be overwhelmingly determined.

Two months later, Remy Hayts, then the prosecutor of Paris, assessed in an interview with the daily France Antilles.The vast majority of condemned facts were already prematureupon submission of complaints.

The announcement of the end of the investigation without any questioning raised a wave of protest at the end of March. The potential prescription for public action has also already sparked outrage and anger in the West Indies, particularly in Martinique, where between 5,000 and 15,000 people, for example, marched through the streets of Fort-de-France in late February 2021.

Calls for mobilization

“Who are we kidding in this case? Martinicans will have to respond from a judicial perspective and mobilize in the street“, Louis Butrin, a lawyer of the Martinique Association, responded.For urban ecology“, civil party.

“We have already agreed on mobilization on December 10Philippe Pierre-Charles, one of the spokesmen for Lyannaj Pou Dépolyé Matinik, a collective of associations involved in the fight against chlordecone, announced to AFP. The decision of the prosecution is for him.crime upon crime“.

Caribbean populations in particular have one of the highest rates of prostate cancer in the world. These prostate cancers linked to chlordecone exposure were recognized as an occupational disease in December, paving the way for compensation for farmers and agricultural workers.