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Independent MP Taito Phillip Field will appeal today's Court of Appeal decision to the Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeal has ruled that the former Labour MP cannot challenge a High Court decision to allow police to lay charges against him.
Justices William Young, Robert Chambers and Ellen France released their decision today following a hearing a fortnight ago.
Approval has to be sought from the High Court before charges can be laid against a Member of Parliament and Justice Randerson granted it in October.
Mr Field's lawyer Simativa Perese had argued that the High Court decision did not come under criminal law so could be appealed.
Solicitor-General David Collins QC, acting for the Crown, argued that the decision was clearly part of the criminal process and Mr Field could appeal at the end.
"In our view the short answer is that the leave decision is inextricably linked to the criminal process," today's judgment said.
"It is, as the Solicitor-General put it, an integral step in that process. In that respect the interests to be balanced are criminal ones."
Mr Field was not commenting today but Mr Perese said he had been instructed to appeal to the Supreme Court and would be doing so shortly.
The criminal case against Mr Field will continue while the appeal is heard after he earlier decided not to continue with a stay of proceedings.
If in the end an appeal was heard and it was decided that the leave decision was wrong the criminal trial would stop.
In today's judgment Justice Chambers wrote that he accepted that Mr Field's appeal should be dismissed because there was no jurisdiction for it to be heard.
However, he said he reached that conclusion reluctantly and thought Mr Field should have been allowed to appeal.
"I do think, however, the law needs to be changed."
Justice Chambers said all decisions based on leave being required before a prosecution could start should be appealable.
He said that once a prosecution was under way an MP's political future was "probably irretrievably damaged, whatever they jury's ultimate verdict".
"It is no answer that a `wrong' leave decision could in theory be challenged in the event the member of Parliament was convicted."
He emphasised his comments were about the law and he was not giving a view on the prosecution of Mr Field or Justice Randerson's decision.
Mr Field appeared in Manukau District Court on Monday facing 15 charges of bribery and 25 of attempting to obstruct or pervert the course of justice.
The charges arise out of allegations made against Mr Field over work done on properties he owned by immigrants seeking to stay in New Zealand and over information he gave a subsequent inquiry.
- NZPA
