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A lawyer for a man arrested in last month's police anti-terrorism raids has filed contempt of court complaint against Fairfax newspapers for running leaked evidence in the case.
Jeremy Bioletti said he had filed a complaint with the Solicitor-General, Dr David Collins. It is up to Dr Collins to decide whether to proceed with any action against the media company, owner of The Dominion Post and The Press.
Mr Bioletti, who represents Jamie Lockett, said he expected the Dominion Post publisher, editor and the reporter involved - Phil Kitchin - to stand trial for contempt.
"I think it is a fairly cynical move by the Dominion to sell newspapers. They have obviously looked at it from a commercial point of view and felt they can make more money by publishing it and I think just adds to the level of contempt," he told Radio New Zealand.
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday said the Dominion Post had in effect taken the law into its own hands by publishing the details of a police affidavit used in court to gain search warrants.
She said she knew that people wanted to know details of the police case against the suspects, but in her position she could not advise people to break the law.
"I think there is a general frustration on behalf of everyone that they want to know what was worrying the police, but of course the publication of intercept evidence is not considered proper unless it comes before a trial judge," she said.
"The problem is that the law is pretty specific about where intercept evidence can be used. That would mean in the normal course of events that information would not be in the public arena unless it met the legal test."
Act leader Rodney Hide said he would like to see all evidence against the accused made public, but only if it were done properly. "So far we've only had one side of the story. We need more information to be able to judge."
United Future leader Peter Dunne agreed, and said information was being released in a piecemeal way.
Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said publishing the information was irresponsible. "We have no idea who said what to who."
Green Party MP Keith Locke called on the Crown Law Office to take action against the Dominion Post over its decision to publish extracts from the affidavits.
"All 16 people facing charges have now been smeared by these unattributed snippets that they will not be able to contest in court because the surveillance evidence will not be admissible."
- with NZPA
