Police offered French fugitive couple Philippe Meniere and Agnes Jardel terms for surrender before they opened fire, according to French consul Antoine Michon.
“We were told they were offered terms to surrender … I was told by a senior official,” Michon said in Cape Town on Monday.
Police are still not saying whether the couple were killed by police fire or shot themselves last Thursday in Sutherland. They had been on the run for six days after a police officer was shot dead and another wounded.
Michon said the cult the couple belonged to was one of several French authorities were monitoring. He did not know any details of the surrender offer by police.
“But in South Africa when someone dies after an exchange of fire with police there is automatically an investigation with the Independent Complaints Directorate. There is also the autopsy and this will help establish what happened - if they took their own lives or whether they were killed by police,” Michon said.
He said the French consulate had been in contact with the police “from the beginning” after the couple had allegedly shot police officer Jacob Boleme in Sutherland and fled into the veld.
“We have no reason to believe the police did not act professionally,” he said.
Asked to confirm if terms of surrender were offered, Northern Cape police spokesman Colonel Hendrik Swartz said: “I don’t want to elaborate or jump the gun. The investigation must be completed.”
Michon said the consulate had established that Meniere had no living relatives in France, but had tracked down a half-brother of Jardel.
Michon was going to Kimberley to identify the bodies on Monday. The consulate had photographs and physical descriptions of the couple from passport applications.
Each had been registered with the French consulate since arriving in South Africa in 1981. They had acquired South African citizenship, but had retained their French citizenship.
“I never met them, they are not people you might meet every day at social activities, but they have been registered with the consulate. This is not compulsory, but French citizens register for various reasons, for instance if there is a crisis and a need to evacuate, then we know where to contact them,” Michon said.
Meniere was 30 and Jardel 25 when they arrived in 1981. They were not married by French officials.
“He was a medical doctor in France and worked for a pharmaceutical company. He had a good job. We don’t have much information about her in France but she was very young when she left, 25, so probably recently finished university. They were both from Paris.”
The last time they were in the consulate was in 2005 to renew their French passports.
Michon said there was a government organisation in France called Miviludes: the Inter-ministerial Mission of Vigilance to Combat Sectarian Aberrations, which monitored cults and sects. The Ramtha School of Enlightenment was monitored there.
“There has been a proliferation of cults in France, in Europe. This monitoring organisation was founded after the Solar Temple sect in the late 1990’s where members were found killed. It was suicide.
“They believed they would go onto a higher plane, so several people killed themselves. It caused a shock in France and in Europe, and this organisation was established to monitor cults and try to prevent any abuse - sexual, financial, psychological. They assist members or the families of members if it is clear there is abuse. They will help members escape from a cult,” Michon said. - Cape Times