Greenpeace files to be re-examined

Press, 8 February 1986, Page 9

Greenpeace files to be re-examined

PA Wellington The police say they will re-examine files on the bombing of the Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior after a French magazine said it had new evidence. The Auckland police chief, Assistant Commissioner Brian Davies, said yesterday that detectives would review a huge file of evidence after allegations in the weekly magazine, “Paris Match,” that the explosives used to sink the converted trawler were carried to New Zealand on the French freighter Helene Delmas. Mr Davies said the magazine’s allegations clashed with forensic evidence of explosive traces on the charter yacht Ouvea which brought three French Intelligence agents to Auckland as part of the sabotage squad. The freighter was an early target in the police hunt after the Greenpeace ship was bombed on July 10. "We searched the Helene Delmas and interviewed the master and crew and found nothing to

support this, but we can’t exclude the possibility,” Mr Davies said. “We have to remember that we are really only dealing with speculation while our case to date has been built on real evidence.” Mr Davies said the new inquiry would not reopen the case against Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart who were sentenced to 10 years in jail after admitting sabotage and manslaughter charges. "Paris Match” said an

unidentified businessman living in New Zealand had collected and passed the mines to the sabotage team — a role previously thought to have been taken by Prieur and Mafart. Mr Davies said the police had never ruled out the possibility that the 20,800-ton freighter had been part of the operation. The only real link was that the container ship was French and in the harbour at the time of the bombing, he said. Earlier report, page 2