Defiance in Tahiti despite jail sentence for self-styled king

Transcript

Supporters of French Polynesia's self-styled king of the so-called Pakumotu republic remain defiant after he was sentenced to six month in jail for his moves to impose a new currency.

Athanase Teiri was sentenced in a Tahiti court in his absence after he ignored bail conditions which requested him to report to the French police every week.

Walter Zweifel reports:

The first major official response to the announced launch of the kingdom's money, the patu, came last month. Then a woman affiliated to the Pakumotu group was given a two-month jail sentence for trying to pay for petrol with a 100 patu note. The sentence was accompanied by a warning that anyone tampering with money risked up to five years in jail. The publisher of the Tahiti Pacifique monthly, Alex du Prel, says police also received a complaint from a company inadvertently involved in the production of the patu notes.

ALEX DE PREL: The Pakumotu king had rented from a local outfit colour photo printers. He rented them to print this fake money. When the printing was done the guy came to pick up his machine and the king paid him with the phony money.

When the matter went to court this week, the Pakumotu justice minister, Maruarai Colombel, was present and told local television that for him the trial was void. He insists that France has no role to play any more and neither its laws or money are valid. The court case attracted the interest of a citizen Rene Hoffer who wanted to have the French monetary code tested. He says if the patu is illegal so is the Pacific franc because France only lists the euro as its currency.

RENE HOFFER: That article should say, at least, the money of France is the euro and blah blah blah [etcetera] - franc pacifique, XPF, you name it.

The court declined to test this. It sentenced Athanase Teiri to prison for making threats to top officials, including the opposition leader, the state attorney and the head of the institute, which issues the Pacific franc. The threat of a long jail sentence didn't get converted into a such a severe punishment.

ALEX DE PREL: The French law says you cannot counterfeit money. Yet the king of Pakumotu did not counterfeit money; he created new money. So if you get condemned for that in Tahiti, they should condemn every day the guy who puts out the monopoly game because they created their money. What about the bitcoins?    

Athanase Teiri is now to be locked up in Nuutania prison for 14 months because he had earlier been given a suspended prison sentence for producing illegal identity cards.