24 Jul 2014

Flosse unrepentant after Paris ruling

2:24 pm on 24 July 2014

French Polynesia's president Gaston Flosse has denied any wrongdoing after France's highest court rejected his appeal against last year's corruption conviction.

In a statement, he says he takes note of the ruling and is awaiting official word that he has to withdraw from public office.

The court in Paris upheld the sentence which bans him from office for three years and includes a 170,000 US dollar fine.

Flosse had been found guilty of running a network of so-called phantom jobs within the presidency in the 1990s in what has been the biggest case of its kind in French legal history.

He says there were no phantom jobs and all contracts were approved by successive French high commissioners.

Flosse says he will seek redress and take the case to the European Human Rights Court, accusing the French judiciary of violating his basic liberties.

He says there is also a denial of democracy because the will of a majority expressed at last year's polls is being ridiculed by this court decision.