The French Polynesian veteran politician Gaston Flosse has lost his immunity as French senator.
The Senate bureau took the unusual step after a request by the French justice minister to allow a judge in Tahiti looking into alleged corruption in the so-called OPT affair to question him.
This means that Mr Flosse can now be held for 24 hours two times.
Any bid to have him put into longer detention has to be approved by the Senate leadership and has to be based on a fresh application.
So far, five people have been put into the jail in Tahiti for up to three months as the investigation has deepened.
Among them is a French advertising executive, Hubert Haddad, who is accused of paying nearly two million US dollars in kickbacks to Mr Flosse for public sector contracts.
