PAPE’ETE, November 26 — French Polynesia’s veteran politician and former President Gaston Flosse, who was jailed two weeks ago as part of a “temporary detention” measure under a current investigation into allegations of misuse of funds, has been released on Thursday (Wednesday Tahiti time, GMT-10), local media report.
The release results from a ruling made last week by a local judge of “detention and freedom”, who was responding to a request from Flosse’s lawyers.
The judge in substance deemed that Flosse’s release would not be of a nature to allow interference with key witnesses. Even though the ruling has since been appealed by an angry public prosecutor, the public prosecution’s appeal will not be heard before next week.
In the interim, Flosse is therefore allowed out of jail, a decision that his party Tahoeraa Huiraatira, has immediately welcomed.
Tahoeraa Huiraatira, since Wednesday, has returned to power as part of a coalition that ousted former President Oscar Temaru and brought back in former President Gaston Tong Sang.
Speaking to local media one day after his return to power, Tong Sang did not rule out appointing Flosse to the high position of Vice-President in his executive, since the decision, he stressed, was up to Flosse’s Tahoeraa Huiraatira party, in keeping with the fresh coalition agreement.
Flosse’s immunity as a member of the French Senate was lifted early November. The request to have his privileges removed came from investigating judges Philippe Stelmach and Jean-François Redonnet, who, over the past six months, have intensified their judicial investigation into a number of cases, including some involving corruption.
Also released on Thursday is French business executive Hubert Haddad whose “2H” company (which was granted the local phone directory market under Flosse’s administration) is alleged to have participated in an operation of monetary kickbacks for the benefit of local government politicians.
Haddad, who had been in jail for the past five and a half months as part of the investigation, has spent the past few days under medical care, due to a heart condition. He was now to be transferred to Pape’ete’s main hospital.
JUDICIAL SAGA
In the past months, as part of the judicial investigation, 78-year-old Flosse, recently dubbed locally “the old lion”, has been summoned and heard several times before Stelmach and Redonnet.
Earlier this month, judge Stelmach labeled Flosse’s two-week jail term a “temporary detention” for charges of passive corruption, embezzlement of public funds and destruction of evidence.
