Ahmed Zaoui - threat to national security or wronged refugee?

Who is Ahmed Zaoui and why should we care? RUTH HILL talks to the people advocating for release of the Algerian asylum seeker, who has become a test case for anti-terrorism laws.

For more than a decade, Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui has been living like a ghost -- in the world but not of it -- fleeing from country to country in search of a safe haven for himself and his family.

In New Zealand, he thought he had found one.

Emboldened by Prime Minister Helen Clark's professed support for members of the deposed, democratically-elected government of Algeria, he arrived at Auckland International Airport last December, ripped up his false passport, declared his true identity and threw himself on the mercy of the New Zealand Customs Service.

A few days later, he was transferred from the Papakura Police Station to Auckland's maximum security Paremoremo prison. He was held there in isolation, without trial, without knowing the allegations against him, and without any idea of when he might be sent back to Algeria where he has been sentenced in absentia to death.

On October 16, after 10 months at Paremoremo, Mr Zaoui was suddenly transferred to the medium security Auckland Remand Prison, where he is permitted some contact with other prisoners. His fate, however, remains uncertain.

An associate professor of theology at the University of Algiers and imam of his local mosque, Zaoui was a candidate for the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which won a landslide victory in Algeria's first free elections in 1991.

Within a month, a bloody military coup put an end to democracy.

For the last 12 years, the military and the Islamic Armed Group (GIA) have been fighting for control of the oil-rich nation, with more than 200,000 killings, unlawful detentions, torture, rape and "disappearances".

Branded an "enemy of the state", Zaoui fled to Europe, where he continued to lobby for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

However, foreign powers have been far from sympathetic: Belgium and France both convicted him on vague charges of "association" with terrorists; Switzerland expelled him, and he left Malaysia after reports the Algerian regime was seeking his extradition.

On his arrival in New Zealand, he was initially branded a suspected terrorist, but was declared a genuine asylum-seeker in August by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority, which was heavily critical of the Customs Service, police, and the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) for the dubious quality of their evidence.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel says security concerns bar her from telling us what she knows.

"I have been put in a terrible position because I can't actually respond to all of the allegations...

"If we as a country do not treat classified security information confidentially we simply won't receive it."

Zaoui's national risk certificate (the basis of which is a largely secret SIS report) is currently being reviewed by the Inspector-General of Security and Intelligence, retired judge Laurie Greig.

He is expected to deliver his report in December to the minister, who will then have three days to decide whether Zaoui should be deported.

Ms Dalziel blames his lawyers for prolonging his prison stay, saying their High Court challenge launched last week was only dragging out the process further.

However, Zaoui's lawyers, Deborah Manning and Richard McLeod, say they have no choice but to explore every legal avenue.

"If we didn't do this, Mr Zaoui would be deported to torture and death, so that argument doesn't hold any logic for us," Ms Manning says.

Sending him back to Malaysia (which has close links with Algeria and a poor record on dealing with refugees) is the same thing as sending him to Algeria "with a transit stop", she says.

The lawyers are not asking for classified information to be released -- but a summary about why he's considered a threat to national security.

This distinction was upheld by legislation in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, she said.

"It's the most extraordinary situation for a person to be placed in: they don't know how to defend themselves and they're facing the case for their life."

Without knowing the substance of the case against their client, Manning and McLeod have assembled more than a dozen overseas expert witnesses to testify to his activities and the fact that the Algerian regime contaminates both the media and intelligence information.

Amnesty International executive director for New Zealand, Ced Simpson, says Zaoui has two death sentences from the Algerian Government itself and a death sentence from the GIA "of which he is allegedly a member".

"He came to New Zealand ironically because he thought this was where he would get a fair hearing and be the furtherest removed from the Algerian Government and extremist groups.

"If he doesn't find sanctuary here, then it's hard to know how he and his wife and four kids are going to find sanctuary anywhere, especially considering his treatment by the Belgian, Swiss and French authorities."

Back in 1999, Lianne Dalziel, then in opposition, was one of the staunchest opponents of the Terrorism Suppression Act, rushed through to stave off the rumoured threat of a boatload of Chinese offshore.

Ms Dalziel argued those accused without knowing the allegations against them would end up "fighting windmills" -- which is just what has happened in Zaoui's case, says Mr Simpson.

Despite Ms Dalziel's assurances that there were now "sufficient checks and balances" in place, the Government had given no indication it intended to apply any of the standards outlined by the European Court of Human Rights in handling refugees.

"You don't base a whole system of justice on the integrity of particular people; you build it on checks and balances," he says.

"We're naive enough to think you are innocent until proven guilty -- that's a central tenet of human rights law.

"If Government has evidence to the contrary, they should stump up in some form and not just in a closed non-adversarial hearing."

Green Party spokesman for immigration and foreign affairs, Keith Locke, who has been visiting Mr Zaoui since December, says the whole case is a product of "post-September 11 paranoia".

"We'd been desperate to get our hands on a terrorist for months...so we went totally over the top."

The Customs Service, the police, the Department of Immigration, the SIS and Corrections "all reinforced the mistakes of the other agencies", he says.

Until the last couple of weeks, Mr Zaoui has been kept in solitary confinement for much of the day, limited to receiving visitors once a week, and only allowed to exercise in the sunless corridor outside his cell.

Nor surprisingly, a psychologist's report this month showed he had suffered psychological "damage" as a result of stress and trauma.

The Government "seems to have forgotten" the Bill of Rights applies to everyone, says Mr Locke.

"It's a problem generally with this so-called War on Terror -- if someone is deemed a terrorist, you don't need to prove it, and they can forget about their democratic rights.... like those incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay."

He described Mr Zaoui as "a very warm, very intelligent man".

"He's a man of peace and reconciliation.... the antithesis of the GIA.

'If Western countries do not engage moderate parties like this they only end up encouraging the more extreme political elements.

"We should be welcoming people like Mr Zaoui with open arms."

Zaoui's 10 years in search of asylum:

* 1993: Flees Algeria to Belgium.

* March 1994: following the visit of the Algerian Foreign Minister to Belgium, Zaoui is charged with being the head of a criminal association. Acquitted, but given a suspended sentence on appeal.

* 1995: an independent government committee finds he poses no danger to Belgian national security.

* 1997: Swiss authorities refuse to hear application for asylum and ship family in the middle of the night to Burkino Faso .

* January 2000: fearing assassination by Algerian agents and frustrated by his lack of access to media, Zaoui goes to Malaysia.

* 2001 (two days after September 11): convicted in absentia by France for "association" with terrorists. Given a suspended sentence and banned from France. (Britain refuses to extradite people to France under that legislation because it is deemed to be unfair.)

* 2002: Leaves Malaysia after reports the Algerian Government was seeking his extradition.

* December 2002: Arrives in New Zealand and imprisoned.


- NZPA