Laurent Vili was accused of shooting the man in January 2002.
New Caledonian rugby star Laurent Vili, 31, has been acquitted of murder after a three-day trial in Noumea notable for its heavy-armed security.
Utter silence greeted the verdict, delivered on Wednesday night about 10 in a packed High Court.
Several of the women in the semi-professional rugby player's
camp, including his long-time partner Sarah D'Almeida, 30, wept quietly.
Outside the courthouse Vili, at present playing for the French Nimes club, addressed supporters, saying although the incidents that led to the trial would not be forgotten, it was important for all involved to move forward in peace.
The verdict brings to an end a saga that started in summer 2001 when the 1200-strong Wallesian community at rural Ave Maria, about 10km outside Noumea, were harassed from their homes by the neighbouring Melanesian community of St Louis.
The violence included Melanesian torching of Wallesian homes, the slaughtering of domestic animals, and gunshots that caused death and injury.
Wallesians who pleaded for police help were told there had been no orders to intervene.
Vili, at the time a physical education student in France, joined relatives in defending his parents' home. Fearing for his life one night in January 2002, he fired a shot at a gunman in a tree that he has consistently said could not have been Jean-Marie Goyetta.
Goyetta, a father of three, was hit around the same time by a bullet of the same calibre and taken to hospital, where he died several weeks later of an infection.
