Transcript
"If I have to be convicted, I have told my lawyer: jail me for the rest of my life!"
Oscar Temaru is dismayed that he has been dragged into court for the alleged abuse of funds.
His supporters had crowded the court all week and the proceedings had the air of a political trial.
The claim that Mr Temaru had abused public funds by subsidising Radio Tefana later changed to him having had an undue interest in the station which benefitted his politics.
One of his lawyers Gilles Jourdainne told reporters the claim doesn't stand up
"We are in a grotesque situation. We are being told about political propaganda without being told on what day at what time and in what way there was political propaganda."
The defence team complained last month that it took eight attempts to be given documents about the charges.
The prominent French lawyer David Koubbi says the prosecution cannot back up its case.
"We have no recording of Radio Tefana that proves even in the slightest that partisan positions had been taken to characterise this radio as having taking sides illegally."
The station gets about $US200,000 a year from the Faaa municipality which is headed by Mr Temaru who's been the mayor since 1983.
The chairman of Radio Tefana, Heinui Le Caill, is also accused and he insists the broadcaster is not party radio.
"We're opening the airwaves to everybody, to all political views, religious opinions etc. There is no censorship at Radio Tefana."
Another defence lawyer Vincent Dubois says Mr Temaru's stance against nuclear weapons testing and for independence resonated among voters who kept re-electing him.
"It's them who voted for those members because they have those ideas. It is the defence of an idea. Conversely, if you want to listen to Radio Tefana they won't tell you to vote for Tavini or Mr Temaru."
A Faaa community services official Vanina Crolas told local television that the funding process had never been challenged.
"The French state services, they all approved the latest conventions when they were put in place in 2003. And now, what had always been legal is suddenly illegal."
The prosecution maintains the publicly funded community radio is a model that is being abused, and Mr Temaru is to be fined.
Mr Temaru suspects he is being targeted in a political trial but the prosecution denies that.
"The prosecutor has received instructions. It can only be that way."
The lawyer David Koubbi says if the court accepts the interpretation of the prosecution, the president's decision to fund autonomy celebrations this weekend will also have to be punished.
"If I follow the reasoning of the prosecutors it is an illegal conflict of interest because the pro-autonomy president finances an autonomy celebration which in fact is no autonomy celebration as it is not the date of any of the autonomy statutes."
Mr Temaru's other lawyer Gilles Jourdainne expects the case to be thrown out.
"And I have trouble seeing today how a court could sentence Mr Temaru when there is no proof given to make the case."
The court will deliver its verdict on the 10th of September.
