Issue Date: August 23, 1985 Other International News: 2 Charged in Ship Sinking

New Zealand arrested a man and a woman July 23 in connection with the explosion that sank the Greenpeace protest vessel in Auckland harbor two weeks earlier. The two appeared in court July 24 and were charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson and the murder of a Greenpeace photographer who died in the bombing. [See 1985 Other International News: Greenpeace Ship Sunk by Bomb]

The man and woman carried Swiss passports identifying them as Sophie Frederique Claire Turenge and Jacques Turenge. However, the French magazine L'Express Aug. 14 said the woman had been recognized from photographs as Dominique Prieur, an army captain and full-time agent for the French secret service, Direction Generale de Securite Exterieure (DGSE).

New Zealand police who traveled to to investigate confirmed that identification, but declined to disclose the identity of the man being held with Capt. Prieur. Some reports said that the man was a major at a French secret service sabotage training center in .

Police in New Zealand July 26 had issued warrants for the arrest of three crew members of a French-registered yacht that left Auckland the day before the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. The three were being charged with arson with the use of explosives, conspiracy to commit arson, and murder.

The French government Aug. 8 launched an official inquiry at the direction of President Francois Mitterrand into the ship's sinking. Premier named Bernard Tricot, a highly respected civil servant who was a chief of staff under the late president , to head the inquiry.

Two top government ministers, Defense Minister Charles Hernu and Interior Minister Pierre Joxe, reportedly were being questioned in the investigation. Hernu asserted that his conscience was clear in the matter and said he "never dreamt of resigning," despite speculation that he might be forced to do so.

Opposition politicians in and the right-wing press accused Mitterrand's Socialist government of involvement in the sinking. The right-wing magazine Minute charged that Jean-Louis Bianco, Mitterrand's chief of staff, had played a role in the affair. The government Aug. 14 denied the charges and said it would sue Minute over the allegations.

As controversy mounted, Jean Lecanuet, head of the centrist Union pour la Democratie Francaise (UDF) and president of the Senate's foreign affairs and defense commission, Aug. 19 said that the secret service had sunk the vessel and implied that senior government officials were responsible for the operation.