13 Jan 2010

Flosse surprised at rival's lack of judicial woes

6:27 pm on 13 January 2010

French Polynesia's veteran politician, Gaston Flosse, says he is stunned that the opposition leader, Oscar Temaru, has never been found responsible for anything despite being repeatedly in power.

Mr Flosse made the comment to the Tahititoday blog, likening his own situation to a bad dream.

He says he has been convicted to pay huge sums over the so-called fake employees affair which he says is reminiscent of a parody with him being the bad guy and Mr Temaru the good guy.

Last month, a court in Tahiti ordered Mr Flosse and 23 others to repay 2.8 million US dollars of public funds whose misspending he authorised as president.

Gaston Flosse was also been fined 135,000 US dollars for making the payments.

He has appealed the conviction.