Police needed two bids to get Warrior pair

Press, 10 January 1986, Page 4

Police needed two bids to get Warrior pair

PA Auckland The police almost missed out twice in arresting the French spies, Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur. Three Auckland detectives hurrying to arrest the two at a south Auckland rental car agency found their car blocked in the Auckland Central Police Station by a senior police officer’s car. The detectives had no choice but to commandeer the car to rush to the rental agency. The incident was recounted in a first-hand report of the police investigation of the Rainbow Warrior bombing published in the latest issue of the International Police Association magazine.

A detective, writing under the name “Serendipity,” said the senior officer’s car was being washed.

“The car cleaner had done an excellent job of cleaning the vehicle and also polishing it. There he was standing admiring his handiwork when suddenly I rushed up to him and plucked the keys to the vehicle from his hands,” the

detective said. He said the cleaner tried to grab the keys back but failed. The detective said that as he drove away from the police station, he remembered seeing the car cleaner, utterly bewildered, with his hands to his head, yelling “That’s the boss’s car, that’s boss’s car, you bring back.” The detectives arrived at Mt Wellington in time to detain Marfart and Prieur, both of whom were getting edgy at the stalling tactics of the rental car company staff.

The police had missed a first opportunity to arrest the couple when, on the night the Rainbow Warrior was sunk, July 10, a patrol had taken 18 minutes to respond to a 111 call reporting people acting suspiciously in an inflatable dinghy in the Okahu Bay area.

It was later discovered that the people in the dinghy had been responsible for bombing the Rainbow Warrior. The detective said the interview with Mafart after his detention was extremely

frustrating. During the 21-hour interview the detective said he lost his temper and said to Mafart “Monsieur, I think you are a very sloppy spy.” The detective said he reacted that way because Mafart “just sat there displaying the same annoying equanimity that I had since come to expect from that annoying Frenchman. “He acknowledged me by shrugging his shoulders and at the same time cocking his head to one side and blowing a sudden puff of air through pouted lips.

“He had an amazing way of answering questions with that simple gesticulation which served to answer yes, no, maybe, or take your pick.” The detective said people wondered what sort of persons Mafart and Prieur were.

“Alain Turenge (Mafart) was impressive from the point of view that he appeared a clean-cut individual, highly intelligent and apart from two ugly scars there was absolutely nothing about him that suggested he was either a mercenary or a foreign

agent. “Not at any time during the lengthy interviews that I had with him did he show great anger. He seemed to have a very optimistic attitude towards life and he was to tell me that as long as you had your health little else mattered. “During his incarceration in Mt Eden and Paremoremo he was a model prisoner. Sophie Turenge (Prieur), like Alain, appeared very intelligent and well educated. She was a thin, fragile person who had a great sadness in her eyes. “On the main occasions I saw her, she looked to be on the verge of tears. To her credit I must say that she showed great courage throughout the whole ordeal.”