Convicted smuggler Karel Sroubek to appeal against deportation again

Convicted drug smuggler Karel Sroubek. Photo / NZME

By RNZ

An appeal by convicted drug smuggler Karel Sroubek against his deportation will be heard this week.

The Immigration and Protection Tribunal will decide if the former champion kickboxer will be sent back to the Czech Republic.

The hearing was scheduled to be heard by the Tribunal in July, but his legal representatives terminated their engagement to act for him and the tribunal agreed to adjourn the hearing.

A new date was subsequently adjourned due to Covid alert level restrictions last year.

Sroubek arrived in New Zealand almost two decades ago under the false identity of Jan Antolik, and first hit the headlines when he was convicted of immigration fraud and importing the drug ecstasy.

Former immigration minister Iain Lees-Galloway had to decide whether to deport him, and instead granted him residence.

The minister later issued a new deportation liability notice claiming Sroubek never met the minimum statutory bar to enter New Zealand in the first place and this week's appeal will look at that decision.