The Frenchman Rémy Quignolot who spent 16 months in prison in the Central African Republic where he was accused of espionage, without having been tried, returned to Paris on Sunday 21 May, knowing that he had been able to leave Bangui on Thursday evening in the direction of Gabon, for medical reasons.
Rémy Quignolot had been granted provisional release last September, following a hunger and thirst strike which had weakened him, especially as the prosecutor himself had noted that his state of health did not allow him to appear before the court.
After 16 months in detention without trial, he spent the next 8 months in the French Embassy infirmary, after having been granted an order by the Indictment Division of the Bangui Court of Appeal, authorising him to leave the Central African Republic for health reasons.
This release did not lift the charges against him, but he had already been medically evacuated and his family had requested that the information remain confidential until his return.
A former military officer and security consultant who has worked in CAR since 2013, Rémy Quignolot was arrested in May 2021. He had been photographed in front of a veritable arsenal of weapons, which he has always denied possessing. This situation was interpreted by French diplomacy as intimidation by the authorities and Wagner’s Russian advisers.
This evacuation authorised by President Touadéra comes a few weeks after his meeting with Emmanuel Macron in Gabon and is a sign of decrispation sent to Paris.