Oscar Temaru Photo: RNZI
The appeal court in French Polynesia has acquitted the pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru and two others in the case of the funding of Radio Tefana.
In 2019, Temaru was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and fined $US50,000 after the criminal court had found that, as mayor of Faaa, he had funded Radio Tefana to benefit his Tavini Huiraatira 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. They have also been acquitted.
Radio Tefana was fined $US1 million which has now been thrown out, as has Temaru's fine.
The acquittal comes after a repeatedly delayed trial went ahead in the appeal court in March.
Temaru said he wasn't surprised by the ruling because "it was the truth", saying he wished for a justice in his country with a "capital J".
His lawyer David Koubbi said Temaru was accused of something he never did, which had now been established.
"Oscar Temaru has never been convicted other than in a rigged case."
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 Huiraatira, led by Temaru, won the recent election for a new 57-member territorial assembly, gaining 44.3 percent of the vote.