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Posted on 28-10-2004
Zaoui NZ's Guantanamo Bay
By Fran O'Sullivan, 28.10.2004, NZ Herald
Auckland barrister Rodney Harrison QC has labelled the Ahmed Zaoui case
New Zealand's Guantanamo Bay - its "one and only post 9/11 cause celebre".
Speaking at the IBA's "Law or War" seminar in Auckland this week, Mr
Harrison - who is Zaoui's lead counsel - questioned how the Government's
approach to the case "can possibly square with New Zealand's claimed
serious commitment to the rule of law". He said the Government had "gone
overboard" given the lack of a clear terrorist threat against this
country.
"Ahmed Zaoui, in a type of pocket battleship way, is New Zealand's
Guantanamo Bay ... although in purely factual terms the comparison is not
always apt." Mr Harrison conceded that Zaoui had been better treated than
the Guantanamo Bay prisoners held by the US military. He was not an "enemy
combatant nor a terrorist". He had been granted recognised refugee status
by the New Zealand judicial body empowered to make that decision.
The QC cited the Crown's opposition to giving Zaoui an "adequate
de-classified summary" of information held about him and the Director of
Security's reasons for concluding he was of sufficient danger to issue
this country's first security risk certificate. "The sky had not fallen in
after Zaoui was finally provided with the summary after a legal battle."
He believed the Court of Appeal would not uphold the security director's
claim that there would be "an adverse impact on New Zealand's reputation
and thus on New Zealand's international wellbeing if Zaoui was allowed to
stay".
Zaoui, a member of Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), has been
detained in an Auckland prison for nearly two years.
Mr Harrison said the "war on terror" was used as a justification for
incursion on basic human rights.
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