Inquiry into missing journalist in coming months

ANA – Avaiki Nius Agency – JPK Update

NEWS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE USE

Members of a support committee looking into the 1997 disappearance of a journalist in Tahiti expect the judge in charge of the case to release his findings in coming months.

Jean-François Redonnet took over as judge in charge despite a Tahiti prosecutor telling police not to accept any more evidence on the case in 2008.

In a press release today, the committee outlined several motives behind the alleged assassination of Couraud, known as JPK.

Motives for his assassination include secret correspondence held by JPK showing money transfers between a former president of French Polynesia, Gaston Flosse, and an account held in a bank in Japan, code-named to former French president, Jacques Chirac.

Most French media report claims that the bank has said there is “no record” of Chirac holding any accounts at the bank, Tokyo Sowa Bank.

However, other media report the bank as saying it had “no record” of any accounts from 1999, two years before JPK disappeared.

A finding this year would mark some eight years since the family of Jean-Pascal Couraud laid a complaint with police in 2004.

Soutien JPK will meet at the Intercontinental Hotel on 4^th October 2012 to discuss updates on the affair.

Translation of full communiqué can be found here:
http://www.jpkupdate.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/communique-from-jpk-support-committee.html

ENDS

Amendment: This sentence:
"However, other media report the bank as saying it had “no record” of any accounts from before the year JPK disappeared."

was amended to this sentence:

"However, other media report the bank as saying it had “no record” of any accounts from 1999, two years before JPK disappeared."

Amendment same date as publication. The amendment adds a specific date to the contention that the bank has not ruled out the possibility Chirac had an account there - just that it has 'no record' of any accounts before 1999. 

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