JAKARTA, Indonesia (12 Apr 2006) -- A French and German diver accused of stealing treasures from shipwrecks in Indonesian waters and held by authorities here for more than a month have been released pending further investigation. Frenchman Jean-Paul Blancan and German Fred Dobberphul were arrested on March 8, accused of illegally salvaging thousands of treasures from a 10th-century wreck in the Java Sea over the past year. Their detention had caused diplomatic ructions, with Paris summoning Indonesia's envoy and accusing Jakarta of arbitrarily holding the two men. After his release, Blancan, 53, maintained his innocence. "Being held, knowing that you're completely innocent, that's what I couldn't stand," he told AFP shortly after his release late Wednesday. "The two embassies did an amazing job. Tomorrow I will hug everyone," he said, sporting a wide grin. "If you know you are 100 percent innocent and you are treated like a criminal, it's hard," added his co-diver Dobberphul. While the two have been released, they remain under investigation, accused of illegally salvaging a cargo including 250,000 pieces of china, thousands of semi-precious stones and bronze and gold objects bought from Arab traders. Dobberphul said the two had been ordered to check in with police twice a week and not leave Jakarta. Under Indonesian law, police could take months to complete the investigation before submitting their files to prosecutors, the pair's lawyer Yudhistira Setiawan said earlier. They face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty. The French government demanded last week that Jakarta immediately release Blancan, summoning the Indonesian ambassador in Paris to voice its protest over the detention, which it described as arbitrary. The Belgian head of the archaeology project, started two years ago in a venture with an Indonesian partner company, has said he believes a rival company — wanting to get its hands on the bounty — was behind the arrests. | | Liars and looters Leigh Bishop and Brad Sheard. Following the lead of dive industry-endorsed shipwreck looters Bishop and Sheard, scuba diving thieves around the world are destroying wrecks for bragging rights, coffee table displays and internet auction profits that amount to a fraction of the revenue shipwrecks can generate as fully protected underwater museums. FROM THE EDITORS OF CDNN Despite dive industry 'take pictures, leave only bubbles' green-wash, a small but strident group of scuba diving looters steal artifacts from shipwrecks under the guise of 'archaeological exploration', and aggressively compete for bragging rights, product endorsements and profits from the sales of stolen artifacts that are now on a par with those from smuggling humans and drugs. "We do not care about Leigh Bishop and Brad Sheard's personality problems, their hate-mongering web sites, their chat room shenanigans nor their crude attempts to blackmail responsible, eco-friendly dive companies that support full protection of marine wildlife and shipwrecks," said CDS President Evan T. Allard. "Such unscrupulous conduct is beneath contempt and serves only to substantiate accusations that Bishop and Sheard have committed crimes and will continue to do so unless authorities step in." "The fact is that the vast majority of the global scuba diving community opposes shipwreck looting and underwater grave robbing, and with good reason," Allard added. "For scuba divers, every shipwreck is an underwater museum to be fully protected for our children, our grandchildren and all future generations of divers who will dive deeper and longer thanks to ongoing improvements in diving technology ," Allard said. CYBER DIVER ALERT | If you have information pertaining to the theft and/or sale of wreck artifacts, or desecration of underwater grave sites by Leigh Bishop, Brad Sheard, organized crime gangs or anyone else, please contact CDNN immediately and your information will be passed along to appropriate authorities. REPORT SCUBA LOOTER |
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