A French businessman has secured the reimbursement of just over half a million US dollars he had paid in bail in French Polynesia ten years ago.
Gaston Flosse and Hubert Haddad Photo: AFP
Hubert Haddad had deposited $US800,000, to be released after he'd spent months in a Tahiti jail during investigations into a huge corruption scandal involving the former president Gaston Flosse.
In 2013, both men were given jail sentences but on appeal a year later the matter was thrown out on a technicality, with a decision now expected in July on whether to re-open the case.
The so-called OPT affair centred on Flosse getting more than $US2 million in kickbacks for awarding government contracts to Mr Haddad.
The overturned 2013 judgement also provided for the repayment of more than $US5 million to the publicly-owned OPT telecommunications company.
Last week, an investigative judge ordered the release of some of the bail money which according to Tahiti-infos was unsuccessfully challenged by the prosecution.