The investigative authorities in French Polynesia have rejected a bid to drop charges in the suspected murder case of a journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud, who vanished in 1997.
Tino Mara and Tutu Manate, who belonged to the now disbanded GIP militia of President Gaston Flosse, were last year charged with kidnapping but then a murder charge was added.
The French newspaper Le Monde reported that the home of the suspects had been bugged last year, when they allegedly spoke about the killing and the plan to lie during their impending questioning.
Photo: RNZ
A defence lawyer said he wanted the recordings to be declared inadmissible and the charges to be dropped.
The Couraud family says it hopes the case to go to trial next year - 11 years after the murder complaint was laid.