A French court is set to review the conviction of the late French Polynesian politician Pouvanaa a Oopa.
After a controversial trial in 1959 for allegedly fomenting unrest, Pouvanaa a Oopa was jailed for eight years and exiled for 15, before being pardoned and allowed to return to Tahiti in 1968.
His family unsuccessfully tried to reverse the conviction.
However new evidence unearthed by a historian Jean-Marc Reignault showed that the then government of President Charles de Gaulle wanted to remove Pouvanaa from public life.
According to AFP, French courts may annul the conviction next year.
When Nicolas Sarkozy was president he gave a special televised pre-election address to Tahiti, saying the files about Pouvanaa would be opened to allow for a possible re-trial.
A statue in Pouvanaa's honour is in front of the territorial assembly and a key street in Papeete has been named after him.