There is a legal row in New Caledonia over the detention of the son of a leading pro-independence politician.
Leley Uregei has been in custody for one month which his lawyer says amounts to arbitrary detention on the basis of a fictitious sentence.
The issue relates to a drink drive incident causing injury in 2009 which resulted in a civil case and a criminal case.
The lawyer says at the time the judge considered giving his client a five-month jail sentence, but chose to order him to pay compensation.
The prosecution claimed that the court made a mistake and insists that Uregei's current jailing is correct.
His father, Louis Kotra Uregei, who is a member of the territory's Congress, says he won't let this stand and has written to the French justice minister, Christiane Taubira.
