Defence lawyers for French Polynesia's disgraced former president Gaston Flosse say the OPT affair can no longer be taken up in court to be tried.
Gaston Flosse Photo: AFP
In April, the case was thrown out over a procedural error, quashing the five-year jail sentences given in 2013 to Flosse and a French advertising executive, Hubert Haddad.
In 2011, the criminal court convicted Flosse for taking more than US$2 million in kickbacks for granting public sector contracts to Mr Haddad over a 12-year period until the middle of the last decade.
Flosse had admitted disbursing the money for private expenses.
The defence says the statute of limitations now applies and the case should be closed because more than three years have elapsed since the start of the initial probe.
The prosecution has told judicial authorities in Tahiti that there hasn't been such a delay.
A ruling on whether to abandon the affair is expected in early March.
Flosse lost the presidency in 2014 after being convicted in a major corruption case.
