PAPE'ETE (Radio New Zealand International / Radio Australia / Pacific Media Watch): French Polynesian President Gaston Flosse has lodged defamation complaints against Fabrice Lhomme and Gerard Davet, journalists at Le Monde newspaper.
Flosse is also seeking to sue opposition politician Oscar Temaru, a former pro-independence president of French Polynesia, Radio New Zealand International reported.
Flosse is suing Lhomme and Davet over their book about slain journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud.
Couraud, known as "JPK", was the editor of Les Nouvelles de Tahiti, French Polynesia's oldest daily and was fired in 1988 for being too critical of Flosse. The newspaper has now been closed.
In 1997, Couraud "disappeared". His family was first led to believe that he had committed suicide and then a police investigation was shelved in 2002 for "lack of evidence".
But in 2004, former spy Vetea Guilloux became the first to allege that Couraud had not disappeared but had been drowned with concrete blocks attached to his body. Guilloux was imprisoned for "slander" but maintained his allegations, prompting Couraud's family to lay murder charges.
Radio New Zealand news editor Walter Zweifel has previously reported that Couraud's brother, Philippe Couraud, believed the slain journalist was killed for being in possession of documents that could have damaged Flosse as they "pointed to money being channelled via Japan, possibly to an account held by Jacques Chirac".
Paramilitary force
Flosse also used to have his own paramilitary force, which has been implicated in the killing of journalist, Jean-Pascal Couraud, who vanished in 1997.
Two members of the now disbanded paramilitary are on trial for Couraud's murder.
Flosse is suing Temaru on a separate matter, for "making allegedly defamatory comments in an interview with Radio New Zealand International about a planned casino in Tahiti", RNZI reports.
Flosse was convicted last month of corruption, and was denied leave to appeal. He and five others were accused of paying inflated prices for the Anuanuraro atoll, which they bought 12 years ago with public funds.
"Flosse, who is the politician within the French system with the largest number of convictions, has been sentenced to prison in several corruption cases, some of them for crimes dating back more than 20 years," RNZI reported earlier this year.
However, High Commissioner Lionel Beffre had not taken any action over the latest conviction, saying that Flosse may be pardoned by French President Francois Hollande, Radio Australia reported.
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