French Polynesia's criminal court has deferred until next year the case of the now defunct and illegal espionage service of the disgraced former president Gaston Flosse.
The case was to go to court this week but the absence of a key lawyer has led to the trial being deferred until the last week of March.
The spying allegations were first made a decade ago when Oscar Temaru came to power but he later withdrew his complaint.
Photo: RNZ
A separate complaint was lodged by a lawyer and a publisher alleges that by running the unit, Flosse misused ten million US dollars of public funds.
Although its work was illegal, it was condoned by France as it seconded agents from Paris to work for Mr Flosse's team.
Three years ago, France's highest court upheld the conviction of Flosse for obstructing the examination of the case and he was fined 16,000 US dollars for destroying all evidence pertinent to the espionage service which was operational between 1997 and 2004.
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