Dismissal requested in the inquiry into chlordecone in the West Indies

Banned in mainland France in 1990, chlordecone continued to be used in the West Indies until 1993 when it is suspected of having caused a wave of cancers. And, this Friday, the Paris prosecutor’s office requested a dismissal of the investigation into this large-scale poisoning, he told AFP on Friday, confirming a source familiar with the matter.

This step had been expected since the Parisian investigating judges of the public health center had closed their investigations without having proceeded to indictments. In its final indictment dated Thursday, consulted by AFP, the prosecution considers in particular that the facts seem prescribed, particularly with regard to poisoning, or uncharacterized, concerning the administration of harmful substances.

“Towards a denial of justice”

The investigation was opened in 2007 after the filing by several West Indian associations of a complaint for poisoning, endangering the lives of others and administration of harmful substances. In 2021, the investigating judges in charge of the case had informed several civil parties of their analysis according to which the facts would in their vast majority be prescribed.

The announcement of the end of the investigations without any questioning had already raised an outcry at the end of March. “The turn taken by this scandalous affair is worrying because we are moving towards a denial of justice”, had thus denounced the lawyers of the association Pour une écologie Urbaine. The possible prescription of public action has also already aroused indignation and anger in the West Indies, particularly in Martinique where 5,000 to 15,000 people had, for example, marched in the streets of Fort-de-France at the end of February 2021.

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It is now up to the investigating judges to make their final decision in this very sensitive case in Guadeloupe and Martinique where more than 90% of the adult population is contaminated with chlordecone, according to Public Health France. The West Indian population also has one of the highest incidence rates of prostate cancer in the world and these cancers linked to exposure to chlordecone were recognized as an occupational disease in December.

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