Joseph Akaravong. Photo: Facebook / Joseph Akaravong
A New Zealander has been arrested in France in relation to a knife attack on a Laotian activist.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was aware of the arrest but for privacy reasons, no further information was being released.
French newspaper Le Monde reported Joseph Akaravong was stabbed in broad daylight in the southwestern city of Pau on 14 June.
Of four people arrested, two were released from custody.
On Thursday, the remaining two people were charged in relation to what the prosecutor described as an attempted assassination.
In a statement to AFP, prosecutor Rodolphe Jarry said one defendant, arrested in Nîmes three days after the stabbing, had been placed in pre-trial detention and the other under judicial control.
Investigations were continuing under the authority of the examining magistrate.
A Thai non-government organisation (NGO), the Manushya Foundation said in a statement Akaravong was a political activist from Laos who had take refuge in France. He was given asylum from 2022, having left the country four years earlier.
AFP reported Akaravong spent some time in exile in Thailand under the NGO's protection, after denouncing human rights violations in Laos and accusing the government of corruption.
- RNZ / AFP
