Court proceedings over Zaoui premature, says crown

3.00pm


Court proceedings over Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui's security risk certificate were premature, crown lawyer Karen Clark said today.

In March, the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) certified Mr Zaoui's continued present in New Zealand constituted a threat to national security.

Five months later, the Refugee Status Appeals Authority granted Mr Zaoui refugee status.

In a judicial review in the High Court at Auckland this week, Mr Zaoui's lawyers are challenging the SIS refusal to provide a summary of the case against him.

Ms Clark, the deputy solicitor-general, noted that the Refugee Status Appeals Authority had concluded Mr Zaoui had "a well-founded fear of being persecuted if he returned to Algeria".

She said the words "if he returned to Algeria" supported the crown case that the court proceedings were premature.

She added that SIS Inspector-General Laurie Greig was still in the early stages of his review of the security risk certificate issued against Mr Zaoui.

"Thirteen steps were proposed," she told the court.

"The inspector-general had taken just four of them when the plaintiff challenged the process and decisions thus far taken by filing these proceedings."

Ms Clark also said Justice Greig was correct to rule that the "human rights dimension" had no application in his review.

Human rights issues should be drawn to the immigration minister's attention when deportation was considered.

Earlier today, Mr Zaoui's lawyers said plaintiffs in similar cases in Britain, the United States and Canada were provided with information about the allegations against them.

"The spectre of the September 11 and the attacks on the US hangs largely unacknowledged in this case," Rodney Harrison QC said.

If Mr Zaoui had been a lawfully elected representative in Fiji who had been ousted by one of that country's coups, rather than from an Islamic country, "it's difficult to imagine that his presence here would be handled in a remotely similar way".

- NZPA