21 Aug 2014

Flosse probed over Tahiti hospital deal

12:53 pm on 21 August 2014

Investigative judges in French Polynesia will today again question the president, Gaston Flosse, in a probe about the deals behind the construction of Tahiti's new hospital.

His son, Reginald Flosse, and a company owner, Robert Bernut, have been charged in connection with the case.

Media reports say Flosse's lawyer has already asked for corruption charges against Flosse to be dropped, should charges be laid today.

Last month, Flosse was detained for ten hours to be questioned but released, with his lawyer saying he was only asked to answer question as a simple witness.

After his release, he said the detention was a deliberate humiliation and an act of revenge after a corruption conviction against him in another major case had recently been thrown out by the court of appeal.

A day later, Flosse was stripped of his political offices in a French supreme court ruling for corruption, but he remains in office because he won't resign and because the French government has refused to deliver the court verdict to Flosse to make it official.