Politics
President Flosse Escapes Yet Again
But his days in court are not over yet, he predicts
While French Polynesia's President Gaston Flosse appears once again to have escaped conviction in court, this time on fraud charges, former president Alexandre Léontieff returned to prison briefly before being released on parole.
A Paris appeals court acknowledged in October that a July French National Assembly amnesty law prevents an appeal of a two-year-old acquittal of Flosse on charges of forgery and omitting to declare some of his personal assets.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
The case stems from allegations that he failed to declare some of his assets as required by a French Commission on Transparency. Flosse has claimed the assets and property did not belong to him any more, having been transferred to his first wife when they divorced in 1985.
 |
|
|
Although the Paris appeals court routinely scheduled a hearing for November 19 on the prosecution's request for an appeal, the court hinted that the charges against Flosse could be dropped. Both prosecution and defense lawyers reportedly agreed on that approach in view of the amnesty law passed following Jacques Chirac's successful re-election as French president.
When interviewed by the local French newspaper La Dépêche de Tahiti, Flosse spoke of earlier court cases he had won in recent years, including one of alleged graft. He said he was happy there was no "two-speed judiciary, contrary to what my opponents say".
However, Flosse predicted his days in court might not be completely over.
"(My opponents) will be even more bitter and they will come up with more complaints to try and destabilise me. I know some of them only live for this. Their hatred is such that they will never stop."
As for Léontieff, president from 1987 to 1991, he had to return to prison in late October when his latest appeal on a graft case was turned down in Paris. One of several graft cases, this one involved one of Papeete's two private clinics, Clinique Cardella.
However, a Papeete court released the 54-year-old Léontieff on November 5, basing its decision on his health and professional reasons.
Léontieff, a one-time key member of Flosse's government, resigned. He created a majority coalition with Flosse's opposition leaders and became French Polynesia's president in 1987, forcing Flosse's hand-picked successor out of office.
Flosse resigned as president to become the first and only French under secretary of state for the Pacific.
After Flosse returned to power in 1991, Léontieff did not make a political comeback until 1996 when he won a seat in the French Polynesia Assembly as a member of Oscar Temaru's independence Tavini Huiraatira party.
Last year, Léontieff indicated he wanted to quit politics. But then he and Flosse had reconciled their differences to the amazement of most observers.
Flosse rewarded Léontieff by naming him one of the main managers of a mixed investment company in charge of welfare housing.
