The Appeal Court in French Polynesia has acquitted the pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru and two others in the case of the funding of community Radio Tefana.

In 2019, Temaru was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and fined US$50,000 after the criminal court had found that, as mayor of Faa’a, he had funded Radio Tefana to benefit his pro-independence Tavini Huira’atira party.

The chairs of the board of the association which runs Radio Tefana, Heinui Le Caill and Vito Maamaatuaiahutapu, had also been given suspended jail sentences of one and three months, respectively.

Radio Tefana was fined US$1 million (NZ$1.6 million).

The acquittal comes after a repeatedly delayed trial went ahead in the Appeal Court in March.

The radio station had regularly opposed France’s nuclear weapons tests in the region, but the defence said no recording had been produced to prove it was propaganda.

The defence said the French state lied to the local population about the weapons tests for 50 years.

The Tavini party said the real reason for his conviction was that in the eyes of France, Temaru “committed treason” by taking French presidents to the International Criminal Court over the tests.

Tavini Huira’atira, led by Temaru, decisively won the recent election for a new 57-member Territorial Assembly, gaining 44.3 percent of the vote.

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Two radio stations linked to the French Pacific’s decolonisation movements want to co-operate to lift the use of indigenous languages.

The heads of Radio Tefana in French Polynesia and Radio Djiido in New Caledonia said this was in line with the United Nations declaring the next 10 years as the decade of vernacular languages.

Tahiti Nui TV quoted a member of Radio Djiido, Kengy Wiwale-Hauata, saying New Caledonia had 30 local languages and they were all honoured on the radio every day.

The two stations plan to expand co-operation in the region, considering partnerships with Wallis and Futuna, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.

The two stations were set up in the 1980s when the pro-independence movements were led by Oscar Temaru and the late Jean-Marie Tjibaou respectively. Both broadcast on the frequency 97.4FM.

Radio Tefana is threatened with closure because of a US$1 million fine imposed three years ago when Temaru, mayor of Faa’a and a former President of French Polynesia, was handed a suspended prison sentence over the station’s funding arrangement.

The conviction has been appealed but a hearing of the case has been deferred for a fifth time until next year.

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French Polynesia’s pro-independence leader and mayor of Faa’a, Oscar Temaru, says double standards are at play in probing him over the payment of his legal defence.

Temaru commented on being held for six hours last week for questioning over the Faa’a Council’s decision to pay his legal bill in a 2019 court case, which is still under appeal.

The prosecution claimed the payment amounted to an abuse of public funds and that Temaru should have paid for the expense with his own money.

A lawyer acting for Temaru said the council was obliged to cover the mayor’s bill, describing last week’s brief detention of Temaru as a bid to tarnish him.

Temaru said such cover had for example been extended to the former chief-of-staff of Nicolas Sarkozy, Claude Gueant.

As part of the probe, the prosecutor in 2020 ordered the seizure of Temaru’s US$100,000 personal savings — a move being challenged by Temaru.

The probe drew criticism as his defence team risked court action for accepting funds that the prosecutor claimed were unduly allotted to Temaru’s benefit.

Prosecutor’s move challenged
One lawyer, David Koubbi, raised the prosecutor’s move with a 22-member agency which rules on professional ethics.

In the 2019 court case, Temaru and two others were given suspended prison sentences and fines in the criminal court in Pape’ete.

They were convicted for exercising undue influence over funding arrangements for a community station, Radio Tefana, which supports Temaru’s pro-independence political party Tavini Huiraatira.

In what was his first conviction, Temaru was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and a US$50,000 fine.

The current and former chairs of the board of the association which runs Radio Tefana, Heinui Le Caill and Vito Maamaatuaiahutapu, had also been given suspended jail sentences of one and three months, respectively.

Radio Tefana was fined US$1 million.

Maamaatuaiahutapu said it would have been easier to blow up the station with dynamite instead of having a trial.

US$1m fine five times radio’s budget
Le Caill said the station’s US$1 million fine was five times its budget, meaning the station was unable to pay and would have to close.

At the time of the trial, Temaru said if he had to be convicted, he should be jailed for life.

After sentencing, Temaru said he was being punished because in the eyes of France he “committed treason” by taking French presidents to the International Criminal Court over nuclear weapons tests.

The case was appealed two years ago but has been deferred four times and is now due to be heard on August 29.

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Investigators in French Polynesia have reassessed their case against the pro-independence leader Oscar Manutahi Temaru, who has challenged the seizure of his US$100,000 savings.

The money was taken at the behest of the French prosecutor as part of a probe into the community radio station funding of Temaru’s defence in a trial in 2019.

The highest court in France rejected the move and ordered the investigators to again make the case for seizing the funds.

According to Tahiti-infos, a decision is due on March 8.

The probe into the defence funding was launched after the criminal court in Pape’ete had given Temaru a suspended prison sentence and a US$50,000 fine.

He was found to have benefitted from the funding arrangement for Radio Tefana, which the court said amounted to “undue influence”.

Temaru was implicated as the mayor of Faa’a whose administration paid for the community radio station, which in its turn was fined US$1 million.

Defence wanted case thrown out
The defence wanted the case to be thrown out, saying the prosecution failed to cite a single incident of propaganda on behalf of Temaru’s Tavini Huiraatira party.

At the time, Temaru said the real reason for his conviction was that in the eyes of France he had “committed treason” by taking French presidents to the International Criminal Court over the nuclear weapons tests.

In court, Temaru asked for the appeal case to be heard after the French presidential election, saying he feared there could be political interference in the judicial process.

He suggested as a date for the appeal court sitting June 29, 2022, which he said was the anniversary date of French Polynesia’s annexation by France, but the court rejected his suggestion and set March 22 as the start date for the week-long trial.

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The court case in New Caledonia brought by French Polynesia’s pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru against the French prosecutor over the Faa’a community station Radio Tefana has been deferred for a second time.

Last month, it was deferred until yesterday but it has now been rescheduled for November 25.

In June, Temaru had sought a preliminary ruling in Tahiti claiming state prosecutor Herve Leroy had violated the assumption that he was innocent.

However, the court in Pape’ete found it could not deal with the case impartially and ordered it to be moved to New Caledonia.

Temaru said the prosecutor had asserted that he was convicted of a crime although the trial process had not been concluded because the appeal was still pending.

Temaru had appealed a suspended six-month prison sentence given last year for exercising undue influence over funding arrangements for the community station Radio Tefana.

In June, Leroy ordered the seizure of US$100,000 from Temaru’s savings account before obtaining an authorisation by a judge as part of a new investigation into alleged abuse of public funds.

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A Paris-based lawyer acting for French Polynesia’s pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru has taken his client’s treatment in the case in Tahiti to France’s High Council for the Judiciary.

David Koubbi raised the actions of the prosecutor in Pape’ete against the Fa’aa mayor with the 22-member agency which rules on professional ethics.

Two weeks ago, the prosecutor Herve Leroy ordered the seizure of US$100,000 from Temaru’s savings account before obtaining an authorisation by a judge as part of a new investigation into alleged abuse of public funds.

READ MORE: Tahiti’s Temaru marks decolonisation listing

Leroy intervened over Temaru’s court conviction for exerting undue influence last year but Temaru said the case was still on appeal and therefore his presumption of innocence was violated.

The new probe launched by Leroy this year asserts Temaru misspent public funds because the Fa’aa municipal council had decided to fund his defence, including the cost to hire Koubbi.

The lawyers face the risk of court action against them for accepting funds which the prosecutor claims the council unduly allotted to Temaru’s benefit.

Koubbi told the public broadcaster in Tahiti that he also took up this case with the ombudsman, also known as the defender of rights.

Preliminary ruling sought
Yesterday, Temaru sought a preliminary ruling from the court in Tahiti over Leroy’s actions.

However, Leroy was not there and his lawyer secured a deferral of the hearing until next Monday, June 22.

Temaru, who at the beginning of last week started a hunger strike in protest at the French judiciary, suspended the action on Friday in view of yesterday’s scheduled court hearing.

It is unclear if the case will be heard in Pape’ete after the head of the court said she might not be able to rule because the prosecutor was part of the same judicial organisation in Tahiti.

One of his supporters, French Polynesian and French parliamentarian Moetai Brotherson, questioned the suggestion to move the case to France, saying it would be unclear who would pay for Temaru and his lawyers to go to France.

He said if there were a transfer, New Caledonia should be considered because, unlike France, it was covid-19 free.

Yesterday, Temaru also signed an appeal against the judge’s order seizing his money.

Political ‘punishment’ case
Koubbi restated that the case against Temaru was political and punishment for him succeeding in having returned French Polynesia onto the UN decolonisation list in 2013.

He also cited the 2018 move by Temaru to take France’s living presidents to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity over the nuclear weapons tests between 1966 and 1996.

Last year, Temaru was given a suspended prison sentence for exerting undue influence after the court found that the Fa’aa council funding of a pro-independence community station, Radio Tefana, profited his political party.

However, Koubbi said the prosecution had failed to provide an example of the station being partisan.

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