Court date finally for Urewera 18

A date has finally been fixed for the High Court trial of 18 people caught up in the Urewera police raids.

In the High Court at Auckland this morning Justice Pamela Andrews set the hearing down for 12 weeks starting on August 8, 2011 - nearly four years after the nationwide police operation in October 2007.

Prosecutor Ross Burns told the judge the crown case would take six weeks and a further six weeks was estimated for the defence.

Justice Andrews said it was not desirable to have a trial date so far out.

She said the only court room that could handle so many defendants over such a lengthy period was Court Room 12, which is in fact two court rooms knocked into one to cope with big cases.

However, she said that the trial date could be brought forward if the estimate of the length of the trial changed or if that court room became available earlier.

Tuhoe activist, Tama Iti was one of the 18 who were caught up in the raids, which centred on the eastern Bay of Plenty but included arrests in Auckland, Wellington, Palmerston North, Hamilton and Christchurch.

Initially police wanted to charge some of the accused under the terrorism legislation, but they were over-ruled by the Solicitor-General and the defendants now face a variety of firearms or drugs charges.

The raids were the culmination of a 12-month investigation into alleged weapons training camps in Ureweras.

- NZPA