Czech drug dealer Karel Sroubek liable to be deported.
The long and winding saga of drug smuggler and purported humanitarian exile Karel Sroubek wound its way back into court on Wednesday after years of political controversy and legal wrangling.
Sroubek’s case was called in the Auckland High Court on Wednesday morning before Justice Sally Fitzgerald.
He is seeking ajudicial review of the recent decision by the Immigration and Protection Tribunal that he should be deported. An aspect of the case is suppressed.
In a December 8 decision, the Tribunal ruled that while there were some exceptional humanitarian circumstances in the case, it would not be unjust or unduly harsh to deport him.
That followed a June 2022 decision by the same Tribunal that Sroubek had not proved the resident visa he was granted in June 2008 under a false identity was not granted due to administrative error.
While the Tribunal dismissed his appeal, it delayed his deportation by three months to allow him to attend to his business arrangements in New Zealand and legal matters.
Sroubek’s lawyers have since launched a judicial review of the Tribunal’s decision.
As a result, Sroubek can continue to live in New Zealand lawfully, because the Immigration Act allows people to remain legally in New Zealand when they are pursuing one of the avenues of appeal available to them.
Wednesday’s hearing was set down to hear arguments from both Sroubek’s lawyer and counsel for the Minister of Immigration regarding both the jurisdiction of the court and the scope of the application for leave to appeal.
The hearing rapidly dove into the legal weeds, with complex submissions traversing legislation and immigration case law from Stephanie Earl, a Meredith Connell prosecutor acting for the Minister of Immigration, and Sroubek’s lawyer Ben Keith.
The arguments centred on the circumstances and the timings by which an appeal could be brought under the Immigration Act.
Earl said an appeal should have been lodged within 28 days of the decision by then Immigration Minister Iain Lees Galloway in November 2018 reversing his earlier decision to cancel his liability for deportation and grant him a new residency visa under his real name.
That decision represented a political U-turn amid what was at the time a major and ongoing political scandal.
Keith is arguing he should be allowed leave to appeal via judicial review.
Justice Fitzgerald reserved her decision on leave to appeal. It is expected to be delivered in writing in several weeks’ time.
Convicted drug smuggler Karel Sroubek. Photo / NZME
Sroubek’s saga
Sroubek arrived in New Zealand in 2003 under the false identity of Jan Antolik and later gained permanent residency under that name through the sports talent visa category.
In 2011, Czech police contacted New Zealand immigration authorities and an investigation took place.
He was then found guilty of supplying false information to immigration, and of having a false passport.
Upon completing 200 hours of community service Sroubek was discharged without conviction - avoiding any risk of deportation - after a district court judge accepted he had fled to New Zealand and used the false identity because he feared for his safety.
Sroubek claimed he had been pressured by Czech police officers to give false evidence in relation to a 2003 murder in Prague.
He alleged that when he declined to give false evidence, he was threatened with being charged as an accessory to the murder.
Before the immigration offences in New Zealand, Sroubek had been cleared of kidnapping and aggravated robbery charges but was later, in 2016, convicted of importing $375,000 worth of ecstasy after 5kg of the drug was brought into the country in a shipment of fruit juice.
He was jailed for five years and nine months and was eventually released on parole in September 2020.
While in jail, Immigration New Zealand initiated an inquiry into Sroubek’s possible deportation.
In 2018 he again hit headlines when Lees-Galloway made the controversial decision to cancel his liability for deportation and grant him a new residency visa under his real name.
A report prepared by immigration for Lees-Galloway to consider had set out Sroubek’s immigration history, including that he had arrived in the country under a fake passport.
It also included that Sroubek was wanted by the Czech authorities for service of 54 months’ imprisonment for attacking police officers and a taxi driver, disorderly conduct and damaging property in 1999.
However, two months later, following intense public outcry and a Government review, Lees-Galloway reversed his decision and issued a new deportation liability notice.
The notice was made on the grounds that Sroubek’s visa may have been granted as a result of an administrative error as he had not disclosed his Czech convictions in his applications, and those convictions made him an excluded person under the Immigration Act.
Sroubek then lodged an appeal with the Immigration and Protection Tribunal against his liability for deportation, brought on both the facts and humanitarian grounds.
In an August 2022 decision, the tribunal considered and dismissed the appeal on the facts, and then a hearing to consider the humanitarian grounds took place the following month.
