31 Dec 2008

Veteran French Polynesian politician says ongoing JPK speculation is scandalous

4:43 pm on 31 December 2008

French Polynesia's veteran politician, Gaston Flosse, says it's scandalous that the press continues to talk about a kidnapping and murder of journalist, Jean-Pascal Couraud, because more than ten years after his disappearance, nothing supports such an assumption.

Mr Flosse issued a statement shortly after the news agency AFP reported that French investigators had found a letter in his home three months ago, detailing the abduction, the torturing and killing of the journalist.

The news report says the letter was written by a former member of the GIP intervention force, Vetea Cadousteau, who five years ago was found dead in a Tahiti valley.

Mr Flosse says the allegations in the letter appear to be so ridiculous in the eyes of the judicial authorities that they have never summoned him.

He also says he questions the timing of the latest media reports, wondering if the interests of the French authorities to manipulate judicial information isn't aimed at undermining him in his current efforts to reconcile political differences in Tahiti.