24 Feb 2010

Tahiti prosecutor's claim in Couraud case concerns familiy

5:11 pm on 24 February 2010

The family of a French Polynesian journalist, Jean-Pascal Couraud, who vanished 12 years ago has taken issue with the Tahiti public prosecutor's claim that the case will probably be abandoned without an outcome.

This comes after Jose Thorel shared his view with French media as a murder investigation is in its fifth year to determine what happened to the journalist, who was reportedly looking into financial transactions of top politicians when he disappeared.

The family says it's strange that the prosecutor made such a comment as the investigative judge probing the case have implicated the former French Polynesian president's intelligence unit in the disappearance.

The Couraud affair has led to the head of the television channel France 3 being summoned for allegedly defaming Gaston Flosse.

Last year, the journalists organisation, Reporters Without Borders, said it feared that the French authorities decided to bury the affair.

According to French media, a former French president, Jacques Chirac, invoked his constitutional rights to immunity for the period he served as head of state to prevent being questioned about any possible links to the journalist's disappearance.