France says arrest of its national in CAR is Russia-backed ’manipulation’
France has called Juan Remy Quignolot’s arrest and charges against him part of an anti-French disinformation campaign backed by Russia.
CAPE TOWN, June 11 (ANA) – France has slammed the arrest of its national who was allegedly found with weapons in the Central African Republic as a “manipulation”, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported on Thursday.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government said Juan Remy Quignolot’s arrest and the charges against him were part of an anti-French disinformation campaign backed by Russia, the French public radio service said.
News channel Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday that Quignolot, who claimed to be a journalist, was charged with espionage and conspiracy nearly a month after his arrest in the CAR capital Bangui on May 10 after police found weapons, military fatigues and foreign banknotes at his residence.
France has suspended budgetary aid and military cooperation with the CAR, a source in the French defence ministry told news agency AFP on Monday. However, humanitarian aid and other projects directly benefiting the CAR population will continue.
“The Russians are involved, but the CAR is an accomplice at best,” AFP quoted the French foreign ministry as saying.
“The CAR authorities have several times made commitments which they haven’t upheld, both politically with regard to the opposition and in its behaviour towards France, which is being targeted by a massive disinformation campaign.“
According to humanitarian sources, the 55-year-old Quignolot had worked as a bodyguard for several organisations in the CAR, which is fighting an armed rebellion against the government.
He was detained with “huge amounts of weapons and ammunition”, Valery Zakharov, the Russian national security adviser to CAR President Faustin Archange Touadéra, said last month.
According to Al Jazeera, authorities accused Quignolot of having aided and trained rebel fighters in the conflict-plagued country since 2013.
It quoted CAR’s attorney general Eric Didier Tambo as saying the French national had been charged with espionage, illegal possession of military and hunting weapons, criminal association, harming domestic state security and conspiracy.
Quignolot has denied the accusations.
– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa
