In a post-9/11 world, Ahmed Zaoui’s arrival immediately thrusts New Zealand into the US-led War on Terror, and he is locked up in solitary confinement.
What do you do when the state locks you in jail and calls you a terrorist - but refuses to say why? John Keir tells the inside story behind New Zealand's biggest security scandal in Enemy of the State: The Ahmed Zaoui File. Today: Episode 2, Big Fish.
Ahmed Zaoui says an Auckland Prison guard urged him to hang himself while he was in solitary confinement in Paremoremo's infamous D Block.
The Algerian refugee, who was detained on false terrorism charges, reveals the exchange in episode 2 of the Herald's new podcast series Enemy of the State: The Ahmed Zaoui File.
"The worst souvenir in prison is the look of the guard," Zaoui explains, remembering his 2002 imprisonment on the grounds of an SIS security risk certificate which took nearly five years to overturn.
The prison guards mostly treated Zaoui as the dangerous terrorist they all believed him to be. One is forever etched into his memory.
"He shocked me," Zaoui explains. "He said to me 'hang yourself'".
Podcast presenter John Keir approached the man in charge of Paremoremo Prison at the time to ask him about Zaoui's recollections.
Murray Sweet, who is no longer with Corrections, initially agreed to be interviewed about his high-profile prisoner, but cancelled at the last moment.
Zaoui's lawyer Deborah Manning says she tried her best to get her client better prison conditions but all her efforts failed.
"He was in 23 hour lockdown and when he did have that one hour out it would be in this concrete yard… rimmed with barbed wire, and I asked the prison manager, 'Well why won't you even let him outside to get some fresh air or sunshine?'
"And he said they couldn't let him in the yard in case one of his contacts had a helicopter that would come over and helicopter him out.
"And I said, 'Well he's got these three guards looking after him'.
"And he said, 'well yes they could all hold on and they could drag them all up'.
"And I remember looking at him to see if he was joking and he really wasn't.
"That was their assessment, that they couldn't allow him in the yard in case a helicopter came through and picked him up with officers dangling from his ankles."
Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui was held in solitary confinement in Paremoremo's infamous D Block. Photo / Supplied
Earlier, police unsuccessfully tried planting an informer in Zaoui's cell at Manukau police station to covertly collect evidence against him.
Zaoui, who spoke very little English at the time, remembers another prisoner sharing his cell and talking "about Jihad".
"It became very obvious to me when he asked questions about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden," Zaoui tells the Herald. "He said to me, do you know bin Laden? And I said yes.
"He was happy and he said 'Where is bin Laden?' and I said to him 'Yeah I know where he is. He's in Afghanistan'".
Defence lawyer Deborah Manning remembers: "So they clearly thought they had someone from Al Qaeda. And of course this is just a year after the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and so Al Qaeda was the issue of the day".
The informer was later the subject of a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Authority.
Enemy of the State: The Ahmed Zaoui File was made with the support of NZ On Air.
