New Caledonia's court of appeal is retrying a case involving a former president, Harold Martin, over the improper allocation of a telecommunications contract.
Harold Martin Photo: AFP
That follows a rejection of the file by the highest court in France in March, which sent the case back to Noumea.
A ruling in the renewed court of appeal case is expected on 17 December.
The case stems from a 2010 deal when Martin was the board chairman of the publicly owned OPT telecommunications company.
Martin, who was a Congress member and the mayor of Paita at the time, had defied the board to seal a $US29 million contract with an associate, Jean-Marc Bruel.
He had been given a six-month suspended prison sentence.
Since then, he resigned as mayor of Paita and served out his term in the Congress.
He said he acted because an appeal court ruling against him could have annulled the budget of Paita.
When the OPT case first went to court, the prosecutor labelled the wrongdoing extremely serious, adding that it was similar to a banana republic where deals are struck behind the public's back.
