French fugitives 'given chance to surrender'
2011-01-25 09:08
Johannesburg - The police did offer the French couple who died in the Karoo a chance to surrender, French consul Antoine Michon told The Cape Times in a report on Tuesday.
"We were told they were offered terms to surrender... I was told by a senior official," Michon said.
"We have no reason to believe the police did not act professionally."
The Independent Complaints Directorate was investigating the shooting incident in the Karoo town of Sutherland last week.
On the run
The couple, Philippe Menière, 60, and Agnes Jardel, 55, had been on the run for six days after allegedly shooting dead student Constable Jacob Boleme and wounding Warrant Officer Glenwell du Toit.
The couple, who was believed to have belonged to a survivalist cult, died on Thursday after police found them in a building on the farm on which they had been living.
But the police would not say if they had been shot dead by police, if they had committed suicide, or if they had been given a chance to surrender.
"They were shot in a house on the farm, and certified dead," said Lieutenant Colonel Hendrik Swart, declining to give more details.
Michon said Menière was 30 and Jardel 25 when they first arrived in South Africa.
"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," Michon told the newspaper.
- SAPA
